The Jungle Mission
by Bml1997
Summary: The other team of penguins (Trixy, Marissa, Rachel, and Skippsy) are sent on a mission to the jungles of Brazil. What will happen? Will it go wrong? This is a prequel to A Trixy Situation, so part of that story will be in this one.
1. The Female Team

**A.N.- Hello! Here is my newest story.****Enjoy!**

Chapter 1: The Female Team

(Nobody's POV)

It is an early, boring Monday morning at the penguin habitat at West Park Zoo. But, these aren't any normal penguins. Nope. These penguins are a group of female commando penguins known by their animal neighbors as the 'crazy psychopaths next-door.' But they aren't really all that crazy...maybe just a bit. But, other than that, they are just trying to keep their zoo and territory safe from evil.

The leader of these girls is Skippsy. She has a flat-ish head and her black feathers are arranged in a short bob-styled do. She is the third tallest on the team and has piercing ice-blue eyes.

Skippsy's second in command, team scientist, and lieutenant is Marissa. Marissa is the tallest penguin on the team. She has green eyes and wears a pair of brown glasses. Her black feathers are pulled back into a small, low pony-tail.

Skippsy's third in command is also her weapons specialist and sergeant; her name is Rachel. She is the second tallest of the group. Rachel has long black and purple striped bangs and sky-blue eyes. She wears a tan backpack from which she can pull just about anything and when she talks, she has a slight Spanish accent.

The last member of Skippsy's team is Trixy. She is the team's private and mechanic, she is also the shortest member of the team by a couple of inches. Trixy has yellow feathers tied back into a long pony-tail with a bow and her bangs are clipped up out of her eyes by a green hari-clip. She has dark blue eyes and wears a bright pink ribbon around her neck. She also has a strong British accent.

"Okay, girls, today is a very special day." says Skippsy to her team during their morning breakfast of fish.

"Oh? What's today, Skippsy?" asks Trixy. "Why is it so special?"

"Today we get our new assignment from the main headquarters. This will decide what we will do for the next few weeks."

"Oh. Alright."

"Skippsy, do you know when or how headquarters is going to contact us?" asks Marissa. Skippsy shakes her head.

"Nope. That's the way of the headquarters; no one ever knows." Skippsy replies taking a sip of her coffee. She makes a face and looks at it. "Yuck. I forgot to add the fish." She then gets up and gets a small hering out of the refrigerator. She drops it into the coffee and stirs. Skippsy takes another sip and nods. "Much better. Anyway, all that I can say is that we must be ready for anything. And I DO mean anything."

"Really? Anything at all? Even smoke signals, Skippsy?" Trixy asks, Skippsy nods.

"Especially smoke signals."

"Oh...I wouldn't have thought that they used smoke signals..."

"That's exactly what Nicole and Bethany thought back in the tropics of Mexico. The poor girls were returned to us in bottles on llama back. So, unless any of you would like to end up like them, I'd suggest we be on our highest alert for the whole day today." Marissa, Rachel, and Trixy groan.

"Okay, so how are we exactly going to do this, Skippsy? I mean, don't we need to train, too?" Rachel asks. Skippsy nods and then shrugs.

"We do need to train...so, I don't know. Marissa, options."

"Um..." Marissa says pulling a clip-board from behind her; she flips through a few pages. "We could do shifts...or yeah, I think that's the best option." Skippsy nods.

"Okay, everyone, you heard her; we'll have shifts so that we know that someone is always on the look out for a communication line from headquarters. I'll take first shift; Trixy, the second; Marissa, the third; and Rachel, the fourth. Then we'll repeat." They all nod in reply.

"Um, one question first, Skippsy. How long is each shift going to be?" Trixy asks. The leader ponders this for a moment.

"Uh...let's just say an hour for now. While I do my shift, though, I want you all to continue through with your morning training; Marissa will lead it." Rachel, Marissa, and Trixy nod and go topside.

* * *

(Skippsy's POV)

I sit back in a chair beside the telephone. _I hope they'll hurry up; I don't like having to adjust my life so that I can wait for one phone call...or TV phone call, or anything. *Sigh.*_

* * *

-An Hour Later-

(Trixy's POV)

I sit in the chair Skippsy left near the phone. I grab a book from under my pillow and read it while I wait for my shift to be over.

*Brrrrriiiiiiing! Brrrrrrrrrrrriiiiiiing!*

I pick up the phone. "Uh, hello. This is Private Trixy of Skippah Skippsy's HQ; how may I help you?"

"Hello, this is General Bob." says the general on the phone. I have to hold my beak to keep from snickering. "Get your commanding officer on the line."

"Yes, sir!" I put the phone on hold and run to get Skippsy. "Skippsy! There's a general on the phone that wants to talk to you." Skippsy nods and enters the HQ. I follow her. She picks up the phone.

"Skipper Skippsy here." She says.


	2. The Assignment

**A.N.- Okay, here is chapter 2! ^^ I have Rachel speaking in Spanish a bit, so I have translations in bold beside it. Enjoy!**

Chapter 2: The Assignment

(Trixy's POV)

"Skipper Skippsy here." says Skippsy. I do not hear what General Bob says next, but I DO see Skippsy nod. "Yes, sir." She is quiet for a few minutes slowly nodding her head. "Of course, sir. We'll be there asap." Skippsy then hangs up and looks at me. "Trixy, go get Marissa and Rachel." I nod and leave. I waddle first to Marissa's lab and knock.

"Marissa! Open up, please!" I say.

**_*KABOOOOM!*_**

Marissa opens the lab door and smoke floods out of the room. "*Cough. Cough.* Hmmm, I must have forgotten to carry the three. *Cough.*" Marissa murmurs.

"Marissa." I say once again. She turns and looks at me.

"I'm sorry, Trixy, did you need something?" I nod.

"Skippsy wants us all in the briefing room stat." Marissa nods and starts waddling that way. I find Rachel looking through her backpack for something.

"Grrr! Dónde está mi cepillo?! **(Where is my brush?!)**" She exclaims digging even harder. She leans further into it. I waddle up behind her and tap her on the shoulder. She jumps.

"Um, what are you doing?" She glances back at me and returns to her desperate-looking search.

"I can't find my brush! I know I put it in here. Somewhere..." Rachel leans even further into the backpack; she disappears into the bag from the waist up. "AH HAH! I knew it was in here!" She comes out of the backpack triumphantly holding a brush. "Now, what did you want to tell me, Trixy?"

"Skippsy wants us all in the briefing room asap."

"Ah, sí. **(Ah, yes.)** Okay, tell her that I'll be there in un momento."

"Un momento?"

"Er, one moment."

"Oh, alright." I then go to the briefing room too.

* * *

(Nobody's POV)

The four penguins are now sitting around a table in a white room with one-way windows. All of the cameras are off. The briefing room doubles as the team's witness questioning room. Once Skippsy has decided that they had waited long enough, she stands up. "Alright, ladies, I have received our new assignment from headquarters." Skippsy says walking around the room. Marissa, Rachel, and Trixy watch her. "We have been assigned a mission to the Amazon."

"As in the one in Brazil?" Trixy asks raising a flipper.

"Is there any other?"

"Actually, ma'am, if I may say so, the Amazon Rain-forest actually covers not just the South American country Brazil, but also the countries of Peru, Colombia, Venezuela, Ecuador, Bolivia, Guyana, Suriname, and French Guiana." Marissa says.

"Where in the Amazon are we going? If we go to the Peru side, I have friends there we could stay with!" Rachel says smiling. She was originally from Peru and visiting her home country excited her. Skippsy nods.

"As far as I have been told, girls, we'll be all over that continent. We may not even stay just in the rain-forest. Something strange is going on down there and headquarters doesn't know what, so they want us to check it out." Skippsy says.

"So what are we still doing here? Let's go!" Rachel says. She isn't even thinking about the mission. She is only thinking about seeing her old amigas **(friends)** again.

"Right, let's go, ladies!" They then exit the briefing room and gather their equipment. They won't be back to their beloved HQ for weeks or months at most.


	3. The Brazilian Base

**A.N.- Hello! Here is the nest chapter! Enjoy ^^**

Chapter 3: The Brazilian Base

(Nobody's POV)

After the girls descended their plane, they 'borrow' a jeep that they find at the airport. "Skippsy, are we there yet?" asks Trixy for the fifth time in a row. She is very bored.

"Trixy. We JUST left the airport; does it LOOK like we are there yet?" Skippsy sighs. Trixy shrugs.

"How am I suppose to know? I've nevah been in South America before." Skippsy sighs. "What's the mattah?"

"Trixy, could you please be quiet for a few minutes?"

"Why?"

"One so I can concentrate on not wrecking us and two because I have a headache!"

"Oh...why don't you just take an Advil?"

"Marissa left them back at the HQ."

"Oh." Trixy is then silent...for two minutes. "So, um, what did headquarters say was going on?"

"Strange sightings mostly, and a lot of thefts."

"What sort of strange sightings, Skippsy?" Marissa asks. Skippsy shrugs her shoulders.

"I don't know. That's why we're going to the Brazilian base. What? Did you think they were going to give me every single little classified detail over a possibly bugged phone line?"

"No, ma'am, of course not." Skippsy rolls her eyes.

"Of course you didn't..." Skippsy mutters under her breath. The jeep is then silent for a few minutes.

"Are we almost there yet?" asks Trixy breaking Skippsy's almost blissful silence. Skippsy groans.

"Trixy. I swear to you that I will tell you as soon as we get there. So, you don't need to ask anymore, capiche?"

* * *

(Skippsy's POV)

I stop our commandeered jeep on the edge of a large clearing. "Trixy, we are here." I say. I see her look around, she then looks back to me with a puzzled look.

"Are you sure this is the place? I don't see any military bases here." Trixy replies.

"Have I taught you nothing, Trixy? What's the one thing I said we couldn't always trust?"

"Um, spidahs?"

"No, that's what _you_ said we couldn't trust. _I_ said that we couldn't always trust our eyes."

"Oh...I still don't understand. Where is the base?" I sigh.

"Below us."

"Oh! Why didn't you just say that in the first place?" I face-flipper myself and take a deep breath. _Why, oh why, did Marissa have to leave the Advil back in New York? Why? Oh, I hope they'll have some inside._

"Marissa, which tree is it?"

"Uh...I think it's that large exotic one over there." Replies Marissa. I nod and waddle over to the tree. I knock twice on its moss covered bark. A flipper and retina scanner flips out from the tree. I lay my right flipper on the flipper scanner and look at the retina scanner. Their screens flash a bright yellow-green and then they flip back into the tree. A key-board with a small screen flips out next. _Well, it seems that they've upped the security measures since the last time I've been here. It's about time too._ I type a password and the little screen with the key-board flips back into the tree. Then a door opens on the tree trunk relieving a clear elevator. We all then waddle into the elevator and I press the button for the lowest level.

* * *

(Nobody's POV)

The elevator dings and opens up to a large white room. "Whoa!" Trixy exclaims looking around the room. Skippsy smiles.

"This isn't your first time seeing a penguin base is it?" Skippsy asks. Trixy shakes her head.

"No, an oldah brothah of a friend of mine used to take us to the London base with him. But its walls and floors weren't so white."

"Ah, yes. The other rooms here aren't so white. This is just the white room also known as the debriefing room."

"So where are we getting briefed at?"

"The conference room of course." Skippsy then walks down a corridor and Marissa, Rachel, and Trixy follows her. Skippsy stops in front of a door. There is a tall penguin with brown eyes standing at the door.

"Buenas tardes, señorita Skippsy. **(Good afternoon, miss Skippsy.)**" he says saluting. Skippsy nods.

"Good afternoon, Alejandro. At ease." She then waddles past him and into the room.

"Ah, señorita Rachel. Tú estás muy bonita hoy. **(Ah, miss Rachel. You are very pretty today.)**" He takes her flipper lightly kisses it.

"Oh, Alejandro. Usted es demasiado! **(Oh, Alejandro. You are too much!)**" Rachel giggles. She too enters the room. He then nods to Marissa and Trixy as they enter.

"Who the Buckingham was he?" Trixy whispers to Marissa.

"Special agent Alejandro Mateo; also known as a guy that Rachel really likes but can't date because of how she doesn't like long distant relationships. " Marissa replies.

"Oh! Alright. Now I understand what just happened." Marissa laughs and pats her on the head.

"Of course you do. Now come on before Skippsy just leaves us here." They then quicken their pace and catch up with their other teammates.


	4. Classified Intel

**A.N.- Okay, here is the next chapter; aka chapter 4. ^^ We get to learn more about Skippsy in this chapter which will probably make some of you peoples happy XD. I'll probably have more chapters with little stories in them in future chapters. :D Enjoy!**

Chapter 4: Classified Intel

(Nobody's POV)

The penguins enter a medium sized room with light gray walls and dark violet caret. There is a large round mahogany table in the middle of the room with chairs circled around it. At the head of the table sits a female penguin. She has gray feathers twirled into a tight bun on her head and silver eyes. There is a small scar above her left eye. "Commander Grace Gray." Skippsy says saluting. The penguin turns and looks at her.

"Skipper Skippsy Penguin. Please, both you and your team take a seat." Grace says. Skippsy nods to her and her team and they each sit down. Grace puts a small stack of files onto the table and slides them to Skippsy. "Here are the files of information for your mission." Skippsy opens the top file and skims through its contents.

"Robbery of new penguin technology...five million dollars stolen from the National Bank of Penguins...brand new sixteen billion dollar experimental laser plans missing...no witnesses for thefts." Skippsy closes the file and opens the next. "Um, there's nothing in here." She frowns. Grace nods and puts her flippers together.

"You are correct. That's the file for suspects and villains. And since there have been no witnesses so far; we have no suspects as of yet."

"Okay..." Skippsy opens the third and final file. "Strange shadows...glowing lights...creepy laughter in the middle of the night...hmmmm; this reminds me of my foe Harriet. Marissa, isn't she still locked up at the Copenhagen Zoo?" Marissa pulls out her clipboard and looks through it.

"She should be; but she isn't. She escaped four months ago." Marissa replies.

"What?! Why didn't you tell me that four months ago?"

"We did."

"Oh..." Skippsy looks sheepishly at Commander Gray. "*Ahem.* Right. Anyway, Commander Gray, where are these sightings from?" Grace thinks for a moment. She then unrolls a large map onto the table. They all look at it.

"Here. Here. And here." Grace says. She draws little red **X**s over the places with a marker. Her three **X**s make a triangular shape. "We're calling it the Amazon Sighting Triangle." Skippsy nods.

"So...we need to check out each plave and then search the center." Grace nods.

"Exactly!" She rolls the map back up and gives Skippsy a smaller copy. "Do you have any other questions?" Skippsy and Marissa exchange looks.

"No ma'am." Grace nods. Marissa, Skippsy, Rachel, and Trixy leave the room. Before Trixy can even ask, Skippsy answers her question. "Trixy, that was Commander Gray. After I left Skipper's team, she is who trained me to be a skipper myself."

"Who's Skippah?" Trixy asks.

"No one special." Skippsy frowns.

"Oh...why did you leave his team?"

"Classified."

"Skippsy! Please tell me! Why'd you leave his team?"

"I said it was classified. And that's the end of the discussion." She then waddles a bit in front of the others.

* * *

(Trixy's POV)

Marissa waddles up closer to Trixy so that they can discus what our first action will be. I hang back a little with Rachel, who I notice is a bit zoned out. "Hey, Rachel." I say.

"Hmm? What?" Rachel says coming back from lala land.

"Why did Skippsy leave Skippah's team? And who's Skippah?"

"Skipper is Skippsy's older twin brother. She left his team because her boyfriend died on a failed mission because Skipper accidently left him behind...

* * *

(Nobody's POV)

-Story-

A team of five penguins are fleeing a rapidly collapsing building. Their names are Manfredi, Johnson, Skipper, Skippsy, and Benjamin. "How much farther, Skipps?" Skippsy asks. Skipper tries to look ahead.

"Not much longer." he replies. Skippsy, Manfredi, Johnson, and Skipper then leap out the building laughing.

"Oh, that was a close one!" they high-five. "Wait...where's Benny?"

"Huh?" They look all around and don't see him.

"I thought he was right behind me! I could have sworn it!" Manfredi exclaims. Skipper and Skippsy turn back and look towards the building. It explodes.

"Benny!" Skippsy tries to slide back to the flaming building. Skipper and Johnson block her path.

"No, Skippsy. It's too dangerous." Skipper says.

"But, Skipper! What about Benny! We can't just leave him! Now move!" Skippsy shoves past Johnson and Skipper and slides back to the building, fighting tears. She then stands a few feet from the flaming, collapsing building. In a few minutes Skipper waddles quietly over to her and puts a flipper on her shaking shoulder.

"Skippsy-"

"No. No, if it wasn't for you Benny would still be here...with me."

"Skippsy-"

"It's all your fault that he's...he's..."

"Dead." Skippsy nods and looks at her brother with a cold glint in her eyes.

"I'm never going to forget this...Skipper. Consider this my resignation." She then slides off.

"Skippsy! Wait! Come back!" Skipper goes to slide after her, but she had a head start and disappeared before he could catch up.

-End of Story-

* * *

(Trixy's POV)

"And that is why Skippsy left Skipper's team and has from that day forward refused to even mention her brother, much less talk to him." Rachel says. I nod slowly. _So THAT'S why Skippsy is how she is. Her boyfriend was killed on a mission and then she left her brother..._

"Oh...I think I understand so much more now...at least more about why Skippsy wouldn't tell me who Skippah was." I say thoughtfully. Rachel nods.

"Sí **(Yes)**, that's what I thought when I was first told the story. Now, do not tell Skippsy that I told you, comprende **(understand)**?" I nod.

"Yes, ma'am."


	5. The Secret Savior

**A.N.- Here is chapter 5! Enjoy! **

Chapter 5: The Secret Savior

(Nobody's POV)

The girls waddle back to the white room. Alejandro is leaning against one of the white walls, but he stands up straight when he sees them...or mostly when he sees _her_. He smiles at Rachel and waddles over to the girls. "Hola **(Hello)**, everyone." He says.

"Alejandro, what are you doing here? I thought you were being sent to someplace in Spain." Rachel says. Alejandro shakes his head.

"No...that was Andre, I've been assigned to help you girls on your mission."

"Oh! Okay...seriously?" Alejandro nods.

"Sí! Of course! Why would I joke about something like that?" Rachel shrugs.

"You said the exact same thing back in Peru..."

"Rachel, we were teenagers then. And I was simply walking home."

"Are you sure? It seemed more like you were stalking me."

"I was not stalking you...I was just...following you to make sure you got back home safely." Rachel puts her flippers on her hips.

"Uh huh, like I believe that. Alejandro, we were eighteen; not even in the military yet. Why in the world would you have been worried about my safety?" Alejandro blushes and rubs the back of his head.

* * *

-Flashback-

(Nobody's POV)

"Can you believe it, Carmelita? Tomorrow the base nearest to here starts recruiting!" Says a penguin with purple and black striped bangs and sky blue eyes. She is skipping backwards in front of another penguin with green and black striped bangs and brown eyes.

"Rachel, are you sure that you want to sign up? I mean, you probably wouldn't be stationed anywhere near here." Carmelita says frowning.

"I know. I'll miss you and Maite. But I really can't stand being here any longer. It's just so...so..."

"Boring?"

"Yeah, boring."

"As in you think that Maite and I are boring or….?" Rachel stops walking.

"No! No, that's not what I meant! It's just, you know how I am…everything here is just too…too…"

"Calm?"

"Sí, calm." Carmelita nods and laughs.

"Rachel, you are so strange."

"I know." Rachel laughs, she begins to waddle forward beside her friend.

"So what will you sign up for anyhow?"

"Weapons specialization." Carmelita shakes her head.

"Of course that's what you'd sign-up for. Why did I even have to ask?" The two girls laugh some more and continue to waddle to their homes. Eventually they come to a split in the road. "Adios, Rachel! **(Bye, Rachel!)**"

"Adios, Carmelita! See you tomorrow?"

"Sí, of course!" They wave and go down different paths.

* * *

(Alejandro's POV)

I'm walking back from high-school. I see Rachel and a friend of hers waddling back towards their own home. I smile to myself. _Ah, sweet, sweet, Rachel. You are so wild, yet so beautiful…and yet you do not seem to notice. *Sigh.*_ I shake my head of these thoughts and see a classmate of mine start to follow Rachel and Carmelita. _Huh? Now why would Juarez follow Rachel home? He hates her…this can't be buen __**(good)**__. Hmmmm…_I sneak after him and keep to the shadows. I see him dive behind a bush and look behind him. I flatten myself against a trunk of a tree behind him and he doesn't see me. "Whew. That was a close one." I mutter to myself. I see Juarez stand back up and continue after Rachel. It is at this moment I see Rachel and Carmelita come to the fork in the road. Juarez sneaks after Rachel. I see something glint silver in his right flipper. My eyes widen for a second. _No! There is no way in the world that I am going to let you hurt mi amor __**(my love)**__!_ _Grrrrr._ I sneak after Juarez even more determinedly.

"This should take care of my only competition for that position as weapons specialist!" I hear Juarez mutter to himself as I see him aim a dagger. We are only a few meters from her house. I see him quicken his step and come up right behind her. He leaps to stab her.

"Oh no you don't!" I exclaim tackling him. I wrestle the knife from his grip and he glares at me. I am the top athlete in my grade, so it was a simple task to take the knife from him. I throw the knife away from us and we tussle on the ground for a few minutes. Rachel is completely oblivious and has a pair of head-phones on. She is now at her front-porch.

"Alejandro, get up!"

"Yeah, okay, as if. You and I both know that the second I let you up you are going to go after Rachel again." Juarez shakes his head.

"No I won't."

"Oh, yes you will. I know you." He glares at me.

"So what are you going to do with me then? Huh?"

"Hmm…" I look around and see a vine hanging down. I smile smugly and grab it. I tie Juarez's flippers behind his back and then I tie him again to a tree. "Don't you dare move a muscle." I then turn to go see Rachel. I feel his sharp glare as I waddle away.

"I'll get you for this! Both you and your little girlfriend!"

"She's not my girlfriend…she's just a friend." I then arrive at her house.

* * *

(Nobody's POV)

Alejandro waddles up to the house. Rachel sees him. "Alejandro? What are you doing here?" She asks giving him a confused look.

"Oh, nothing really." He replies. She nods with a raised non-existent eyebrow.

"Uh huh…alright…well, it was nice talking with you." Alejandro nods.

"That is was…er…I meant it was nice talking to you too!" Alejandro mentally face-flippers himself. Rachel giggles.

"Um, well, see you tomorrow at school, I guess…uh, chao **(Bye)**!" She then closes the door behind her.

"Yeah, chao." Alejandro waves after her. He face-flippers himself. "Well, that went well." He says sarcastically. "She probably now thinks that I'm muy tonto y extraño **(very foolish and strange)**. *Sigh.* Oh well, I'd better take Juarez away." Alejandro then leaves to go and untie the trouble-maker. Rachel on the other-hand is sitting in her room watching Alejandro from her window.

"I can't believe that he came by here! Even though it is a bit creepy...and stalkerish…but I don't care. I think it's cute." She whispers to herself leaning on the windowsill.

-End of Flashback-

* * *

(Nobody's POV)

"You know, Rachel, I don't remember." Alejandro says looking at Rachel.

"Okay, well, it's fresco **(cool)** that you'll be joining us." Rachel replies smiling. "Maybe we could catch up a bit on old times?" Alejandro nods.

"That would be fantástico **(fantastic)**!"

"Gran **(Great)**, how about later tonight?"

"Sure." Rachel nods.

"Bueno. I guess I'll see you later, chao." She then waddles off after Skippsy, Marissa, and Trixy leaving a dumbfounded Alejandro behind.

"Whoa, wait, did she just ask me on a potential date?" He smiles largely. "**YES!**" The other penguins in the room give him strange looks. He blushes and quietly leaves the room.


	6. The Flytrap

**A.N.- Okay here is the next chapter :D enjoy!**

**Oh, and I tried to do some research to see if Venus flytraps actually live in the Amazon rainforest or not, but i kept getting different answers. :/ So, I apologize if I have wrongly put the Venus flytrap in a place that it doesn't naturally grow.**

Chapter 6: The Flytrap

(Nobody's POV)

"Okay girls, let's go!" Skippsy says turning to her team. "Wait, where's Rachel?" Rachel slides into the room.

"Here I am! Sorry." she says.

"Where we're you?"

"Alejandro drew me into a quick conversation." Skippsy nods.

"Of course he did. Rachel, how many times have I told you; 'boys before mission'?" Rachel looks at her confused.

"Um, none that I know of. You have told me 'mission before boys' though." Skippsy looks at her just as confused for a moment.

"What? Isn't that what I said?"

"No, ma'am."

"Oh. Well, anyway, it's everyone here?" Trixy and Marissa nod.

"No, ma'am."

"Who are we missing? Last I checked there were only four of us in this unit, and there's four of us here now." Alejandro slides in.

"Here I am, sorry for the delay." he says.

"Huh? Don't tell me he's part of this mission too." Alejandro shrugs.

"Okay, then I won't tell you." Skippsy face-flippers herself.

"Great, just what I needed; a comedian. * Sigh.* Alright then, Alejandro, this is a unit. There are rules, comprende? MY rules to be more specific. Rule number one, no shenanigans unless you want to end up with Bethany and Nicole."

"What happened to them?"

"It involved a spray paint, a salmon, and an angry skunk...you wouldn't be interested." Skippsy says with a sly smile. "Come on, girls, and Alejandro, time to go."

"Where are we going, Skippsy?" Trixy asks.

"Deep into the Brazilian portion of the Amazon jungle."

"Oh, okay."

"But first, I'm going to find some Advil to take with us." Skippsy then leaves on pursuit for the medicine.

"Um, did I cause that?" Alejandro asks.

"No, Trixy already gave her a headache earlier...I think you just reminded her of it." Marissa says.

"Oh..."

* * *

(Trixy's POV)

We hop out of the glass elevator and waddle over to our commandeered jeep. It isn't there. "Uh, Skippsy, the jeep's missing." I say. Skippsy shakes her head.

"No it isn't. I had one of the desk jockeys down there take it back to airport. We aren't going to need it where we're going." Skippsy replies.

"Oh." Skippsy then leads all five of us (herself included) into the lush and closely grown undergrowth of the rainforest. There are trees EVERYWHERE! Big trees, little trees, fat trees, scrawny trees, green trees, brown trees. There are huge vibrant flowers too. And I do mean huge. I waddle over to an extremely huge one to take a closer look. It almost looks as if it has teeth.

"Careful, Trixy. That's a carnivorous plant." Marisa says. I step back from it quickly.

"It's a what kind of plant?"

"Carnivorous. As in it eats meat." I take a couple more steps away, I could have sworn that I saw it twitch.

"Oh, what is it then?"

"Dionaea Muscipula, aka the Venus fly trap. But don't worry, it only eats insects and arachnids."

"Are you sure? It looks as if it could swallow Skippsy or I whole."

"It wouldn't as I said it eats bugs; not penguins. See I'll prove it to you." Marissa waddles over to the plant.

"I'm not sure that that's a good idea, Marissa."

"Nonsense." Marissa sticks her flipper in a 'mouth' of the plant. "See? Does it look like I'm being eaten?" Just then the venus fly trap slams shut on Marissa's flipper. "GREAT GALILEOOOOO!"

"Um, yes, yes it does."

"OW! OW! OW! OW!" Skippsy waddles back to us.

"What in the world is keeping you girls?! We've already chosen a place for camp tonight." Skippsy says. She then sees Marissa. "Marissa, we're on a mission, we don't have time for you to play around with native vegetation." Marissa whimpers and Skippsy rolls here eyes. She waddles over to the large plant and gives it a whack on its 'head.' It immediately releases Marissa's flipper. "Now stop fooling around and get your lazy tails to camp."

"Yes, ma'am." I salute. Marissa and I follow Skippsy to tonight's base camp. Alejandro and Rachel are already siting by the fire roasting fish.

"Hey, what was taking you all so long?" Rachel asks me.

"Marissa was playing with a carnivorous plant." I reply.

"I was not...okay, maybe I was. Where's the bandages?" Marissa says. Rachel hands her a roll. She glances at Marissa's flipper.

"Are you okay? That looks like it hurts." Rachel says.

"It does hurt, but I'm fine. It's a non-brain injury."

"If you say so..."

* * *

—The Next Morning—

(Nobody's POV)

"Okay ladies...and boy, time to get moving again." Skippsy says after breakfast.

"Boy? Your kidding me, right?" Alejandro asks. "I'm not a boy."

"Well you sure are the funniest looking girl I've ever seen." Skippsy says crossing her flippers grinning. Rachel, Marissa, and Trixy laugh.

"What? No, that's not what I meant!" He blushes.

"I know what you meant, Alexander."

"The name is Alejandro, you know that."

"I do know, yes. But your name's going to become Mud if you don't hurry up. I'm not afraid of leaving you behind." With that she starts waddling away. "Come on, girls. If special agent Slowpoke wants to a stay here, why should we intervene?" They follow Skippsy. Alejandro just sits there.

"She's not serious." he mutters. They had already waddled a good distance away, Skippsy turns and waves to Alejandro. "Or maybe she was...Hey! WAIT UP!" He slides after them.

* * *

(Trixy's POV)

We waddle for a long time. Always southwest, deep into the interior of the rainforest. "Okay, everyone, let's stop and take a break for a moment." Skippsy says. We all nod and sit our backpacks down. I decide to take the resting time as an opportunity to do a bit of exploring. I had glimpsed a bit of what looked like a river, so I go investigate. I waddle over to the river. I follow it for a couple minutes then I find m self standing in front of one of the most beautiful sights I had ever seen.

There is a large waterfall with crystal blue water plummeting down the side of a rock wall, ending in a mass of snow white foam. Large magnificent green ferns grow along the river bank and lovely ivy climbs up beside and around the waterfall. Beautiful orchids grow in small lovely clumps here and there and huge white and pink water lilies float in the clear water. I see a few butterflies fly by and bumblebees flit around the different flowers. The sight is overwhelmingly beautiful. There are exotic rainbow colored birds singing in the trees.

"Wow. Private would have loved this." I whisper to myself.

"Who's Private?" says a voice behind me. I jump and spin around. It is only Skippsy.

"No one you'd know." Skippsy raises a non-exist ant eyebrow.

"Okay, that still doesn't tell me who he is."

"He's an old friend of mine that I haven't seen in years. He was into this kind of thing." I smile remembering him and his cute naiveness. "He could be dead by now, though, for all I know." Skippsy looks at me.

"Chin up, soldier. If he's anything like you, I'm sure he's fine. Come on, it's time to move again."

"Yes, ma'am." I follow her back to the others.


	7. Destination A

**A.N.- Here is chapter 7! Enjoy!**

Chapter 7: Destination A

(Nobody's POV)

-Somewhere deep, deep in the center of the Amazon rainforest-

A penguin shaped shadow zig-zags through the lush undergrowth. He hides constantly in the giant shadows. He looks over his shoulder once more and is once again sliding through the shadows. There is a small hut made of branches and leaves. He enters it panting.

"Did they see you?" says a female voice with some sort of accent. The penguin shakes his head.

"No...at least I don't think so..."

"Good. Good, you have done well." The penguin bows his head.

"Anything for revenge." A shadow in a corner of the room grins.

"Exactly!" The penguin then leaves the room and goes deeper into the three roomed hut. "Oh just you wait, Skippsy. Revenge WILL be mine! Mwahahahahaha!"

* * *

(Trixy's POV)

_Oh Trixy, you idiot! You just HAD to think about him didn't you? Of course you did; you miss him._ I am following Skippsy and the others carefully through the jungle. But ever since the waterfall I haven't stopped thinking about my old friend Private. I start to think back to the very first time I ever met him...

* * *

-Flashback-

(Nobody's POV)

"Tag! You're it!" says Trixy's older brother, William. A younger two year old Trixy with long blond pigtails tied with big pink bows crosses her flippers and frowns.

"Not fair. You too fast!" she says.

"That's because I'm oldah and biggah than you. You're just a baby."

"I not a baby! I big girl!" William shakes his head.

"No, you're a baby."

"Am not!"

"Are too!"

"Am not!"

"Are too!" Mrs. Guen, their mother, heard them and waddles in.

"Now children, what's with the arguing?" she asks. Trixy points at William.

"Wiwy keeps saying I a baby!" Trixy says.

"Because she is!" William says. Mrs. Guen sighs.

"You are both my babies, and you always will be." She then gets up and leaves them again. Suddenly they hear some shouting.

"Private! Oh, squirt! Where did you go?!" says the voice. Mrs. Guen waddles over to the voice.

"Lieutenant? What's wrong?" The tall penguin called Lieutenant waddles over to her.

"Private has disappeared again! And I can't find him ANYWHAH! I've checked through our entire habitat, I've searched the zoo. I just can't find him!"

"Hmm, I'll help you." Mrs. Guen then exits her habitat to help Lieutenant search of his littlest brother.

* * *

(Trixy's POV)

I watch mummy waddle after the strange penguin. I shrug and go back to playing.

"Hehe!" I hear a strange giggle near by.

"Huh?" I mutter. "Is der someone here? Hewo?" I waddle over to a bush decoration and lift up a couple of branches. In the bush I find a pair of large blue eyes. I jump back in surprise. So do the eyes. I young chick about my age and size backs out of the bush. We stand there staring at each other for a few minutes. He has large blue eyes that take up about half of his face and he has no yellow feathers. I tilt my head. "Who are you?"

"Pwivate." says the little chick. I smile.

"I'm Twixy. Nice to meet you." I stick out a flipper and we shake flippers. "Wanna pway?" he nods.

"Sure!" We then play for awhile then mummy and the strange penguin enter the habitat again.

"Private! There you are you little escape artist you!" says Lieutenant.

"Uh oh." says Private he then tries to run.

"Oh no you don't!" Lieutenant springs forward and grabs him.

"So you've found him?" mummy asks. The strange penguin nods.

"Yes, ma'am." I tilt my head.

"Where you taking Pwivate?" I ask. Mummy and Lieutenant look at me and smile.

"Home." he says.

"He be back tomowow?" Mummy and Lieutenant look at each other for a moment.

"Sure, he can come back tomorrow." Mummy says.

"Yay!" Private and I exclaim. From that day on we were by each other's sides always. We did everything together. Whether it was exploding bridges or golfing or just playing tag. We were the bestest friends that two penguins could possibly be.

-End Flashback-

* * *

(Trixy's POV)

I shake my head of those bitter-sweet memories and concentrate on the here and now. "We're here, everyone." Skippsy suddenly says. We all hurry up and stand beside her looking at the tiny fishing village. "Come on, everyone. Operation:Talk To The Locals, is a go!" We waddle into the small are a variety of different animals in the village. A toucan sees us and flies over to Skippsy.

"Hola, welcome viajores **(travelers)**. I am Ezra. What brings you here to our humble village?" she asks.

"Hello, Ezra, I am Skippsy and this is my team; Rachel, Trixy, Marissa, and Alejandro. We are here to investigate about some strange things that someone from here alerted our headquarters about." Skippsy says. Ezra nods.

"You will want to talk to Señor Marcos then. He lives up there." Ezra points at a tree. I look up and see the house. It is very far up. At least thirty branches up. I smile. _That's where we're going? Piece of cake._ I see Alejandro's usual grin fall from his face as he looks up at the tree-house.

"We're going all the way up there?" Alejandro asks. Skippsy nods.

"It would seem that that's the case. What? Are you scared?" she asks. He glances at Rachel.

"Me? Scared? Pfft, no. I've climbed taller trees than that."

"Sure you have, Alejandro. So who wants to go first?" I raise my flipper.

"I will!" I say. This earns me a few strange looks from the others, but I don't care. I like climbing trees, and I haven't climbed any in a while.

"O-Kay, Trixy. Go ahead." I nod and waddle over to the tree. I start to climb up it.

* * *

(Marissa's POV)

I stand there and watch Trixy climb up the tree. She is already about half-way up. _Dang, she must be part squirrel!_ Skippsy starts to climb up after her, and Rachel after her. I look at Alejandro. He looked rather pale. I waddle over to the tree. "Um, are you coming, Alejandro?" I ask. He blinks and looks at me.

"Huh? Oh, yeah. Yeah. I'm right behind you." he says. I nod and start slowly up the tree.

**A.N. - Hmmm, I wonder whose those two mysterious characters at the beginning were...XD**


	8. Señor Marcos

**A.N.- Here is chapter 8 finally XD. Enjoy! (This chapter mayn't be the best, but next chapter hopefully will be MUCH more interesting ;D lol)**

Chapter 8: Señor Marcos

(Alejandro's POV)

_Okay, Alejandro, you can do this. It's just climbing a tree. There's nothing scary about that._ I look up once more at the treehouse and gulp. _Nope nothing scary about this at all. Especially not the possible two and a half story drop if I fall._ I take a deep breath. Then I get an idea. I smile. I grab a pair of sunglasses out of my backpack. "Wait! Why should I even go up there? It only takes one of us to interrogate someone, and there's already four of us up there. So..." I mumble to myself. I put on the sunglasses and lay down leaning against the tree. "I'll just wait here for them."

* * *

(Nobody's POV)

The four female penguins finish their climb up the tree and stand on the treehouse porch for a few minutes. "Okay, girls, and Alejan—Wait, where's Alejandro?" Skippsy says. Marissa shrugs.

"He said that he'd be right up after me." Marissa says. Skippsy looks over the edge of the porch. She can barely discern something that resembles a penguin. Skippsy frowns.

"Well, Marissa, I think that he was just pulling your leg. That's him sitting at the bottom of the tree right there." The other three look down. "Okay, since it seems that he's not coming, let's go head inside and find this Sr. Marcos." The other three nod and Skippsy knocks on the door. It is opened by a somewhat old looking monkey. He is rather small and has fur that resembles a white mustache (he's an emperor tamerin).

"Hola?" asks the monkey with a surprisingly young sounding voice.

"Hello, are you Sr. Marcos?" The monkey nods.

"That would be me." Skippsy nods.

"Alright then, would you mind if we ask you a few questions?"

"About what?"

"About the strange sightings that you alerted headquarters about." He nods.

"Ah, sí, sí! Please, come inside." He steps aside and Skippsy, Trixy, Marissa, and Rachel enter the treehouse.

* * *

(Skippsy's POV)

The living room is fairly basic but comfortable. Sr. Marcos motions us all to some chairs. "Siéntense, por favor."** (Please, sit down.)** he says. We nod and take a seat. He also sits down.

"Alright, Sr. Marcos, please tell us everything you saw that night." I say.

"Why tell you, when I can show you?"

"Huh?" He grins and retrieves some photographs. He gives them to me. I lift the first image and look at it.

"That is of the weird lights I saw." I pick up the next picture. I freeze upon looking at it.

"That is the shadow I saw that night in the forest when I went to more closely investigate the strange lights." Trixy, it seems, notices my solemn look at the second picture. She tilts her head.

"Does the shadow look familiar to you, Skippsy?" she asks. I do not reply; I continue to examine the photo. In the image there is a shadow. A familiar shadow. A puffin shadow. Even though it is just a shadow, the puffin in the image appears to have a mocking grin, as if to say _'You thought you could imprison me, Skippsy? Well, you thought wrong.'_ I set the pictures down. "Skippsy?"

"Huh?" I ask no longer lost in thought. "What?"

"I asked if the shadow looked familiar to you, Skippsy." I nod.

"Yes, Trixy. I would know this shadow anywhere."

"Whose is it?" Marissa asks.

"My frenemy Harriet."

"What could Harriet possibly be doing here in South America? Denmark, the United States, and Sweden I could understand. But Brazil?" I nod.

"She must be planning something big."

"Um, Skippsy, isn't she always planning something big?" Trixy asks.

"Yes, but this time it must be bigger than big. I can feel it in my gut."

"So we are making accusations based on the feelings of your digestive tract?" Marissa says. I frown and look at her.

"Gut instinct." I say lowering my voice. Marissa throws up her flippers in defeat.

"Fine, we are making accusations based on your _gut instinct_? "

"Of course." I see Marissa sigh. I return my attention to Sr. Marcos. "May we keep these photographs for evidence?" he nods.

"Sí! Please, feel free to take them." he says smiling.

"Thank you."

"De nada." **(You're welcome (literally: it's nothing.))**

* * *

(Nobody's POV)

Skippsy nods and the penguins head to the door. "Once again, thank you, Sr. Marcos. Good bye." she says. Sr. Marcos waves and closes the door behind them. The girls then begin to climb down the tree. When they get to the bottom Alejandro is still sitting against the tree.

"Alejandro? Why didn't you go up there with us?" Rachel asks. Alejandro takes off the sunglasses.

"Well, I figured that since it only takes one to interrogate and the four of you had already went up, there was no need for me to waste the energy to climb up there too. So, I figured that instead I'd take una siesta pequiña **( a small nap)**. Alejandro says matter-of-factly. Skippsy sighs.

"Special agents, they must all be the laziest segment of penguin military." Skippsy mutters. "Come on everyone, let's go to Peru now."

"Wait! What you find out from that Sr. Marcos?"

"Well, first of all, we found out that according to Skippsy's..."Marissa starts. She glances at Skippsy before continuing. "Gut instinct, that the culprit behind all of the strange lights must be Harriet."

"Well how can that be? How could she be in three countries at once?" Marissa opens her beak to reply and then shuts it.

"That's a very good question... She must have accomplices! Well, who could they be?" Marissa says. She takes out her clipboard and examines all of the evidence that they had so far. Skippsy shrugs.

"No clue...hmmm, we need more information. Alright, let's hurry on to Peru." Skippsy says.

"YAY! Peru!" exclaims Rachel clapping her flippers. The others look at her and she stops, blushing a bit from embarrassment. "Well, what are we waiting for?! Let's go already!"

"Well, you all heard our impatient weapons specialist. Let's go!" Skippsy chuckles. They then slide back into the jungle.


	9. The Tropical Rattlesnake

**A.N.- Okay here is chapter 9. It may be a bit of a cliffhanger...no wait. It IS a cliffhanger XD Enjoy!**

Chapter 9: The Tropical Rattlesnake

(Nobody's POV)

The five penguins immediately continue on towards their second destination in Peru. Rachel is skipping and smiling broadly beside Alejandro. Skippsy and Marissa are arguing over the map. And Trixy is waddling slowly after them. She had been feeling watched for the past few minutes and it is making her feel uneasy.

*Snap!*

Trixy spins around listening alertly. She watches the spot from where the sound had appeared to have originated. She sees nothing else so she walks a bit faster away.

*Snap! Rrrrrraaaaattttttttlllllllle ...*

Trixy stops in her tracks and listens. The sound sounded much, much closer that time.

"Hiiiiissssssssssssssssssss..." says something in the shadows.

"Huh?" she says. Then something lightning quick launches itself at her. "_**EEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEKKKKKKKK !**_"

* * *

(Trixy's POV)

Something long and scaly leaps out from nowhere at me. I barely see it. Then I feel something...similar to the feeling of getting a shot at the vet. The reptilian beast then disappears as quickly as it had appeared. The trees around me start to spin slightly and I loose my balance and fall to the ground.

* * *

(Skippsy's POV)

"**_EEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEKKKKKKKK K!_**" I hear something or someone scream.

"Huh? What was that?" Rachel asks.

"That sounded like Trixy! Come on, everyone!" I exclaim. We slide back in the direction we had just come. On the ground we find Trixy. She is sitting on the ground propping herself up with her flippers. She appears to be swaying slightly.

"Ohhhh." She moans putting her flipper to her face.

"Trixy? What happened?!" She looks at me and shrugs.

"I-I don't really know."

"Are you okay?"

"Yeah, I think so..." She stands up and takes a couple of wobbly steps. She then begins to topple over.

"Whoa, now. Careful there, niña **(girl)**." Alejandro says catching her. He gently sits her back on the ground. I stand there blinking, unable to move...

* * *

-Flashback-

(Nobody's POV)

Seventeen year old Bethany Tetra is found sitting on the ground, dizzy. Her blond bangs hanging down over her dark brown eyes. "Bethany!"Her older cousin Nicole exclaims running to her. "What happened?! Are you okay?" Bethany looks at her.

"I-I don't know what happened...there was this hiss and a small rattle...and then this happened." Bethany says. Skippsy waddles over to her and looks at her. She notices two small punctures marks on her hip. Her eyes widen.

"Oh sweet halibut! Nicole, slide back to that village quick! Bethany needs emergency attention asap!" she says. Nicole gives her a quick nod and slides away. "Bethany, listen to me."

"Of course, Skippsy." she says smiling her little naive smile.

"Do not fall asleep. No matter what you do, DO NOT fall asleep. That's an order." Bethany tilts her head confused but nods.

"I'll try not to, ma'am."

"No, not try; will." Bethany nods but her eyelids are already trying to close. Skippsy can tell that she's fighting the sleep. She loses. Just then Nicole appears followed by three other penguins with a stretcher. Nicole's black feathers are unkempt and in complete disarray. Her brown eyes are wide with worry. The three penguins put Bethany on the stretcher and carry her back to their village.

"Do you think that she'll be okay, Skippsy?" Nicole asks looking at her with large tear-filled eyes. Skippsy looks at her and sighs.

"I-I don't know, Nicole. That appeared to have been a tropical rattlesnake bite. I just don't know."

Bethany ended up being in a coma for a week. After she finally awoke, she was never quite the same.

-End of Flashback-

* * *

(Skippsy's POV)

I shake the memory from my head and go to Trixy. I quickly find the bite. _A tropical rattlesnake bite. Darn it! Not again. I will NOT lose another soldier mentally to the snakes. I won't. I can't._

"Skippsy, what is it?" Rachel asks. I look at her.

"Trixy's been bit by a rattler." I reply looking once more to Trixy.

"If only we had something to combat the venom. We're too far away now from any villages now to be able to get her any medical help." Marissa mutters pacing.

"Oh! I thought I saw a patch of white trilliums back a little ways." Rachel says.

"White trilliums? Of course! Go get some, and hurry!" Rachel nods and slides away. I look at Trixy; she is becoming flushed and looks dizzy and tired.

"Trixy." I say. She looks at me.

"Yes, Skippsy?" She asks.

"Do not go to sleep." She furrows her non-existant eyebrows in confusion.

"Why would I go to sleep, Skippsy? It's not bedtime yet...is it?"

"No, of course it isn't." I see her shiver. I frown. _I hope Rachel hurries. I don't know how much loner Trixy can stand to wait._

"Skippsy?"

"Yes, Trixy?"

"Why would I go to sleep?"

"You could not ever wake up again."

"Oh...Why?"

"Because you could..."

"Because I could what?" I take a deep breath, I did not want to tell her that the bite could have been lethal. But I couldn't possibly lie to her either.

"Trixy, you could possibly die. The tropical rattlesnake is very poisonous and is potentially deadly."

"Oh...I don't want to die."

"I don't want you to die either." Trixy starts blinking more, desperately trying to stay awake. I can tell that she is struggling fiercely to stay conscious. Rachel suddenly appears holding a bundle of white trillium flowers.

"Here they are!" she says handing them to Marissa. Marissa waddles over to Trixy and I.

"Trixy, I need you to chew these flower petals. Okay?" Marissa says.

"I have to chew on flower petals? Yuck." she says making a face, but she does take the petals and chews on them drowsily. When she is finished she spits them out. "Again, I will repeat; yuck." She yawns.

"Trixy, don't fall asleep!" I exclaim. Too late. She has already blackened out.

**A.N.- A white trillium flower is a plant that chewing on its petals can cure snakebites.**


	10. Snakebite Fever

**A.N.- Hello, everyone! Here is chapter...um 10...yeah this is chapter 10. Lol! Enjoy! **

**Disclaimer: I do not own the poem below. The poem is Depression by NA (Non applicable); (IDK who it's by). This was suggested to me by Madagascargirl. (Thanks, MG! ^^)**

Chapter 10: Snakebite Fever

(Nobody's POV)

"Trixy. Trixy, wake up." Skippsy says shaking Trixy's shoulder, but it is to no avail. Trixy is out-cold. Skippsy sighs and sits back on her heels. "We need to move away from here; especially since there's rattlers."

"Wait! What about Trixy?" Rachel asks. Skippsy shrugs and looks at Marissa for an answer.

"We won't know much on her condition until she wakes up...if she wakes at all that is." Marissa says. Skippsy waddles up behind her gives her a small slap to the back of the head.

"No, she WILL wake up. No ifs, ands, or buts about it. She will wake up." Skippsy says. Marissa doesn't reply. "Anyway, Alejandro, can you get Trixy?" he nods and gently lifts the youngest recruit.

"So, where are we going?" he asks.

"No clue. All I know is away from here." Marissa looks at the map that they had been arguing over earlier.

"It would appear, Skippsy, that there's a safe-looking place not too far from here." Marissa says. Skippsy nods.

"Alright, lead away." Marissa begins to waddle towards the place that she had noted on the map. The others follow her there.

* * *

(Trixy's POV)

-Nightmare-

Everything goes dark. Then suddenly I find myself back in the Dallas Zoo. I am not alone. Private is standing by side. We are rushing around because of something. Suddenly I'm in a box. "Trixy!" Private exclaims.

"Private! Where'd you go?"I exclaim once again.

"I think we're in transfah crates!"

"What! Why would we be in crates?"

"How am I supposed to know?"

"I don't know!"

"O–Kay."

"Private?"

"Yes?"

"Don't stop talking to me."

"I won't."

"Great."

"May I ask why?"

"As long as you're talking, I know that you're still here." there is no reply. I feel my crate being lifted."Private?" I call. " Private!" I call a bit more urgently. There is still no reply. I am alone. Suddenly everything goes black again. I am standing alone in the middle of nothing. Pictures of memories start to flash by. I grip my head. All of those memories...those painful and happy memories. They hurt. I scream.

_Depression is here everyday_

_And it never goes away_

_Go away! I yell into the dark_

_As if someone is there_

_I feel as if I'm a prisoner_

_In the dungeon's lair_

I am now standing by a dark pit. I look down into it. I see a red hat along with several pairs of red eyes. I upon some strange impulse leap down into the pit. I am surrounded by hundreds of mutant badgers; half of which are grouped around something small and black and white. It is Private. "PRIVATE!" I scream. He doesn't hear me. The badgers move in on him. I can not move to help him. "PRIVATE!" he still does not hear me, but a badger does. It takes one look at me and then ignores me. They move closer in.

_And as always no one cares_

_Do I dare?_

_Dare to care about anyone but me?_

_Could it be,_

_Someone there?_

_Someone there to care?_

_No, just an image_

_That's the way it will always be_

I once again am surrounded by nothingness. Alone. Those images of the past are back. They are flashing by even faster and faster and faster. Too fast now to make out details. I try to run from them. But I can't move. Suddenly the vanish. I am now falling. Falling through those memories. Each one I fall through brings tears. They sting. The memories sting. The make me cry out. I just want them to end. To stop. For this nightmare to be over. But it goes on and on and on and on. Everything then goes white. A bright white. A blinding white.

_No matter how hard I try_

_I just want to get by_

_I go through life day by day_

_I thought pain was supposed_

_To go away with time_

_But it's not_

_It's still here_

_Here with the fear_

_Fear that I will get hurt more_

-End Nightmare-

* * *

(Nobody's POV)

Marissa, Rachel, Alejandro, and Skippsy are sitting around a fire. They do not talk. They are each completely absorbed in their own thoughts. Suddenly a scream shatters those thoughts. "PRIVATE!" They each whip around and look at the sleeping recruit. She is turning her head back and forth wildly. In an instant Skippsy and Marissa are at her side.

"Marissa, analysis!" Skippsy orders.

"She must be having a nightmare. It's probably from the fever from how she is fighting the snake venom." Marissa replies.

"Well, what are we supposed to do about it?"

"Make sure she doesn't hurt herself. From where she is fighting the venom the senses that typically shut down her movement during a dream aren't functioning as they should." Skippsy nods.

"No, Priavte!" Trixy screams again.

"Is there a way to help end the nightmare? Like should we try waking her?"

"No! Do not try to wake her. Who knows what that would do to her during this. I don't know of anything we can do." Marissa says. They both just look at the restless sleeper. Then Skippsy suddenly gets an idea. She slides over to Trixy's backpack and reaches down into it. She pulls out a framed picture. She looks at it. In the picture are two penguins; one of which is Trixy, the other is an unknown male.

"Hey, do you think this could help?" Skippsy shows the photograph to Marissa. Marissa shrugs.

"Well, if it doesn't help, it couldn't hurt." Skippsy nods and puts the picture in the sleeping Trixy's flipper. Trixy calms down a bit in her dream. Marissa and Skippsy smile and go back to the fire.

* * *

(Nobody's POV)

Trixy's eyes open. She sits up panting. The sleeping bag and pillow round her are soaking wet with sweat. The looks around confused. "Where am I?" she mummers quietly, though it was still loud enough for Skippsy and Marissa to hear. They look back at her and see that she is sitting up. They run over to her.

"Trixy! You're back!" Skippsy says. She then looks at Marissa. "Told you so." Trixy looks at them confused.

"Um, where exactly did I go?" Skippsy laughs.

"Nowhere. But you did give us quite a scare. We thought we had lost you." Marissa looks closely at Trixy circling around her.

"Um, what are you doing?"

"I'm checking to see if by chance you are a honey badger in a penguin costume." Marissa states matter-of-factly. Trixy looks at Marissa as if she had grown a second head.

"_What_ are you talking about, Marissa? You aren't making any sense at all."

"Do you remember what happened?"

"Um, a little bit I think. I remembah getting attacked by something, falling to the ground, Marissa making me chew flower petals, and then losing consciousness. And then the nightmares." Tixy shudders. "Those horrible nightmares." She then notices the picture in her right flipper. She smiles and hugs it.

"I found that in your pack and when you were tossing in your sleep I gave it to you." Skippsy says. Trixy looks at her.

"Thank you. I've been wondering where this picture had gone. It's one of my favorites." Skippsy nods. Rachel and Alejandro then wake up and notice that Trixy is conscious.

"Trixy! You're okay!" Rachel exclaims. She grabs Trixy into a hug. Trixy coughs.

"Ugh. Rachel, loosen your grip, please! You're crushing me!"

"Oh, sorry." Rachel releases Trixy. "So is she okay? No memory loss or anything?" Marissa shrugs.

"Trixy. What is your name?" Skippsy asks.

"Trixy." Trixy replies.

"What's your rank?"

"Private."

"What is the name of your most secret crush?"

"Private." she then thinks for a moment. "Private as in classified, not as in Private." she adds sheepishly. "I mean, because that would be silly since I'm dating Samuel, whom I do love..." Skippsy puts up a flipper for her to stop.

"Say no more, Trixy, we get it." She turns to the others. "She's fine." Rachel and Alejandro sigh in relief.

"Well, that's great! When are we going to Peru?" Rachel asks.

"I suppose we can go ahead that way. Do you think you're able to travel again, Trixy?"

"I think so." Trixy replies. Skippsy nods.

"If you get too tired, just tell one of us, okay?" Trixy nods. "Spectacular, let's go to Peru, everyone."


	11. Carmelita and Maite

**A.N.- Here is chapter 11! Enjoy ^^**

**Disclaimer: I don't own the song below. The song is ****_Just the Way You Are_**** by Bruno Mars.**

Chapter 11: Carmelita and Maite

(Nobody's POV)

"Ooh! We're almost there!" Rachel exclaims running in front of the others.

"How are you so sure?" Marissa asks. She looks around. "I only see trees."

"I said we are ALMOST there, not that we ARE there. Seriously, Marissa, some days I wonder if you are ever actually listening to me."

"But she did have a good point, Rachel. How DO you know that we're close?" Skippsy asks. Rachel waddles over to a large gray rock. There wasn't anything special about it at first glance, just a rock that has a few patches of dark green and white moss. It really wasn't anything spectacular at second glance either. Skippsy looks at the rock.

"This is how."

"Um, I'm not seeing your point, soldier."

"This is la Roca Grande. **(The Big Rock)**" Rachel smiles. Skippsy looks at her blankly, not understanding. Rachel sighs and looks at Alejandro who had just caught up. Trixy had gotten tired earlier so he had been carrying her piggy-back style. "Alejandro, recuerdas la Roca Grande, ¿ verdad? **(Alejandro, you remember the Big Rock, right?)**"

"¿La Roca Grande? Sí, recuerdo. Encontramos ahí con Carmelita, Maite, Carlos y Felipe después de escuela, ¿no? **(The Big Rock? Yes, I remember. We met there with Carmelita, Maite, Carlos, and Felipe after school, no?)**" Alejandro replies thinking. Rachel nods.

"Sí! Esta roca es esa roca, ¿sí? **(Yes! This rock is that rock, yes?)**" Alejandro nods.

"Sí, pienso tanto. **(Yes, I think so.)**" Rachel then looks at Skippsy who hadn't understood much more than a word or two of Rachel's and Alejandro's mini conversation.

"This is la Roca Grande, or as you would call it, The Big Rock."

"Well, it does appear to be a big rock." Trixy chimes in. Rachel face-flippers herself.

"Ay yi yi, yes that's why we called it that. It was the favorite hang-out meeting place of my friends and me."

"Ohhhh." Say Marissa, Skippsy, and Trixy. Rachel shakes her head and sighs.

"Rachel, since you know this area so well why don't you go ahead and take point and lead us there?" Skippsy asks. Rachel salutes.

"Sí, Skippsy." Rachel replies, she motions for them to follow her. "Come on, it's this way."

* * *

(Nobody's POV)

-Deep in the Center of the Amazon Rainforest-

"Where are they now, Agent J?" asks a puffin in the shack. The penguin looks up at her from a computer screen.

"They have just arrived outside that Peruvian town you had me put on surveillance." Agent J replies. The puffin nods.

"Right on schedule. That's just like Skippsy; to have a nasty surprise dropped in on her and she still is punctual in her timing."

"By surprise you mean Leroy? That tropical rattlesnake?"

"Of course...you did remember to unleash him on her...right?" Agent J looks at her sheepishly.

"Well, I DID release him...he just didn't get Skippsy."

"Then who did he get?"

"That child that was following slowly behind them."

"Well, even though that wasn't exactly what I ordered you to do...I guess it still did slow them some." Agent J gives a small sigh in relief. "But, that doesn't mean that you're off the hook." Agent J gulps.

* * *

(Nobody's POV)

The penguins enter the small town. A group of chicks slide across the team's path after what looked like a ball. Rachel and Alejandro smile upon seeing their childhood town. "Come on, we're so close!" Rachel says. The penguins slide behind her. She turns down a path and comes to a fork in the road. She goes down the left path. They come to a pastel blue house with a bright orange door. Rachel waddles up to the door and knocks on it. It is opened by a penguin with green and black stripped bangs and brown eyes. The penguin's brown eyes widen upon seeing who is at the door. "R-Rachel?" she exclaims. Rachel waves smiling.

"Buenas tardes, Carmelita. **(Good afternoon, Carmelita.)**"

"Rachel!" Carmelita gives Rachel a hug. "I can't believe that you're back!"

"Before you start making any plans, I'm not going to be here much longer than a day or two. We're on a mission in this area, so I figured that I should drop by." Carmelita nods.

"That's understandable. Wait! Is that Alejandro?" Rachel nods. "Ay yi yi, chica **(girl)**! You're one lucky girl to have a guy that hot in your life." Rachel puts a flipper over her friend's beak.

"Shh! Shhhh! Alejandro and I aren't dating, Carmelita."

"What?! Why not?"

"I'm stationed at and live in the States, he is at the moment stationed at and lives in Brazil...you know how I feel about long distance relationships."

"Yeah, I know. According to you they never work out...you should try telling that to Maite and Felipe."

"Say what!? They're a couple?" Carmelita nods.

"Sí...but, we can talk about everything you're behind on later. Right now, why don't you introduce me to them?" Carmelita nods her head toward Skippsy, Marissa, and Trixy. Rachel nods.

"Sí, of course!" Rachel waddles over to them. "Everyone, this is my friend Carmelita. Carmelita, these are my team members; Skipper Skippsy, Lieutenant Marissa, and Private Trixy." Carmelita nods and smiles and shakes their flippers.

"Encantada, it's a pleasure to meet you, all of you." she then turns to Alejandro. "Hola, Alejandro, ¿cómo estás tú? **(How are you?)**"

"Estoy muy buin, gracias. ¿Y tú? **(I'm very good, thank you. And you?)**" Alejandro replies smiling.

"Yo estoy muy muy buin. (**I'm very, very good.)**" She then turns once more to Rachel. "You should go see Maite. She has really missed you. Plus, you'd probably get better details on things from her anyway. Carlos and I will see you later. Okay?"

"Carlos and you? Huh?" Rachel says. Carmelita nods.

"Sí, he's my fiancé."

"Oh my gosh! Well, that's muy bueno! **(very good)**"

"Haha! Adios, Rachel."

"Chao, Carmelita." Carmelita walks back into her house and closes the door. Rachel returns to the group. "Let's go to my house and get rooms decided." Skippsy nods and they follow her there.

* * *

(Skippsy's POV)

Rachel leads us to a two-floored green house with a gray door. It looked strangely freshly painted. "Uh, I'll be right back." Rachel says entering the house. I nod and we wait there for her to return.

* * *

(Rachel's POV)

I enter the house quietly. I waddle into the kitchen and find my mother there. "Um, hola, Mamá. **(Hello, Mom.)**" I say. My mom puts down the plate of sardines she had and turns and looks at me. Her long black feathers had their tips died the same purple as the stripes in my bangs and her green eyes are wide in astonishment.

"Rachel!" she exclaims. She rushes forward and gives me a life-threatening hug. "Oh my little baby's back!"

"Ugh, Mamá! You're chocking me!"

"Oh, sorry." she releases me and smiles. "Just wait here, I'll be right back." she then runs out of the room. "Fernando! Fernando! Nuestra niña está de vuelta! **(Our little girl is back!)**" I sigh and look towards the window. I knew that this would happen, which is why I had my friends wait outside. It was less embarrassing this way. My mom reenters the room with my dad in tow. His blue eyes have their old excited glint in them and black bangs hang down in his eyes. I also notice the few silver streaks in it.

"Hola, Papá. **(Hello, Dad.)**" He smiles.

"You really are back!" he too gives me a life-threatening hug.

"I'm only going to be here for a day or two. We're on a mission, and we are just luckily passing through the area."

"We?" my mom asks, I nod.

"Yes, my fellow team members are here too. Well, and Alejandro...but he's staying at his own house." _Or at least he will be once I tell him_. I think the last part to myself.

"Well! Don't tell me you left them all outside! Where's your manners, dear? Go, bring them inside." I smile and go outside to collect the others.

* * *

(Skippsy's POV)

Rachel comes back outside and motions us to come in. We nod and follow her in. Inside there are two penguins that do not look too, too much older than me...maybe more like ten or twelve years older. "Good afternoon, ma'am, sir." I say. They look at me.

"Good afternoon, miss...?" Rachel's mother says.

"Skippsy. Skipper Skippsy Penguin."

"Ah! So you are my little girl's commanding officer, no?" says Rachel's father. I nod.

"Yes, sir. And may I say, she's probably the best weapons expert I've ever worked with." Rachel's parents beam with pride.

"Well now, I suppose we need to see about you girls some rooms." Rachel's mother says smiling; she then goes to see about the rooms.

"So, Ms. Penguin–" Rachel's father starts.

"Please, just call me Skippsy." I say. He nods.

"Alright, so Skippsy, what exactly do you girls do?"

"Well, Sr. Antonio, we carry out missions in our sector in New York; some of which include saving humans and other animals from villains, both human and animal alike."

"Are these missions dangerous?" I shrug.

"I suppose they can be at times...but that's the thrill of them."

"Ah, sí, the thrill. That's what Rachel has said that she enjoys most in her letters." I nod.

* * *

(Nobody's POV)

-Deep in the Center of the Amazon Rainforest-

"Agent J, I have a new job for you. Consider this...a second chance." The puffin says waddling over to him. He looks at her nervously. "Succeed, and I will let you off the hook for your first assignment; fail, and I will punish you for both. Got it?" Agent J nods.

"Yes, ma'am."

"Alright, this is your new assignment..."

* * *

(Rachel's POV)

I quietly exit my house. I had decided that I was going to go visit my other friend Maite while I had the time. I slide down the path to her purple house which had a neon pink door. I knock on the door. A penguin with violet colored eyes and long feathers with the tips dyed turquoise and her bangs were stripped between the turquoise and her natural black feathers. "Hola, Maite." I say. Maite smiles and motions me inside.

"Hola yourself, Rachel. It seems like forever since you've last been in town." Maite says. I nod and sit down on the couch in her living room.

"I believe it has been close to forever, yes." We laugh.

"So, you and Alejandro..." I shake my head. "What?"

"There is no me and Alejandro."

"Pfft! Says you! I remember vividly the looks he gave you back in our school years. And equally the looks you gave him."

"What looks?" Maite shakes her head.

"Oh come on, Rachel. We both know you know what looks I'm talking about...remember for instance that night he asked you to go to the prom with him."

* * *

-Flashback-

(Nobody's POV)

"So, Carmelita, are you going with Carlos to the prom?" Maite asks. The three girls are sitting under a tree in a field. Carmelita shrugs.

"Eh, maybe..." Carmelita replies.

"Oh I see, you're trying to play hard to get, eh?"

"Pfft, no not at all."

"Uh huh." Maite winks at Rachel.

"So, Maite, how about you and Felipe?" Rachel asks. This stops Maite cold.

"Erm...well, no sé **(I don't know)**."

"No sé! Maite!" Carmelita and Rachel both exclaim. "Why?"

"Well, I don't really think he's my type..."

"Type? Really? Maite, he's head over tail for you and you're worried about type? Maite what the tuna is wrong with you?" Rachel says. Maite shrugs.

"No sé." Suddenly Felipe, Carlos, and Alejandro hop out from behind some bushes. The three boys make up their own little band, so it was no surprise to the girls that Felipe and Carlos each had guitars and Alejandro had a microphone (which was purely for looks).

_"Oh, her eyes, her eyes, make the stars look like they're not shining_

_Her hair, her hair, falls perfectly without her trying_

_She's so beautiful,_

_ and I tell her every day_

_"Yeah, I know, I know, _

_when I compliment her she won't believe me_

_And it's so, it's so, sad to think that she don't see what I see_

_But every time she asks me do I look ok,_

_ I say_

_"When I see your face,_

_ there's not a thing that I would change_

_Cause you're amazing, just the way you are_

_And when you smile, the whole world stops and stares for a while_

_Because girl you're amazing, just the way you are(yeah)_

_"Her lips, her lips, I could kiss them all day if she let me_

_Her laugh, her laugh, she hates but I think it's so sexy_

_She's so beautiful, _

_and I tell her every day_

_"Oh, you know, you know, you know, _

_I'd never ask you to change_

_If perfect's what you're searching for then just stay the same_

_So, don't even bother asking if you look ok_

_You know I'll say_

_"When I see your face, _

_there's not a thing that I would change_

_Cause you're amazing, just the way you are_

_And when you smile, the whole world stops and stares for a while_

_Because girl you're amazing, just the way you are_

_The way you are, the way you are_

_Girl you're amazing, just the way you are_

_"When I see your face,_

_ there's not a thing that I would change_

_Cause you're amazing, just the way you are_

_And when you smile, the whole world stops and stares for a while_

_Cause girl you're amazing, just the way you are. Yeah"_ The boys finish the song and Rachel is blushing. Alejandro smiles.

"Rachel, will you go to prom with me?" he asks. Rachel thinks for a moment and nods.

"Sí, why not?"

-End Flashback-

* * *

(Rachel's POV)

"That's the type of look I'm talking about. The one you gave him afterwards." Maite says.

"I don't know what look you're going on about, Maite." I reply. Maite shakes her head with a sigh.

"Rachel, has anyone ever told you before that you're stubborn?"

"Sí, tú. **(Yes, you.)**" We then laugh for a few minutes and Maite nods.

"I thought so." I look up at the clock and sigh. She looks up at it too and frowns. "I suppose that you probably need to go back home now, huh?" I nod.

"Yeah, before I have three adults fussing at me for being late for dinner."

"Tres? **(Three?)** Who?"

"Mamá, Papá, and my commanding officer Skippsy."

"Ah! Well, good luck with your mission! Adios." I wave to her.

"Adios." I slide back to my house just in time for dinner.


	12. Bulls, Bats, and Ocelots, Oh My!

**A.N.- Here is chapter 12! Enjoy! :D**

Chapter 12: Bulls and Bats and Ocelots, Oh My!

(Maissa's POV)

The next morning Skippsy woke us all at the time that she normally did for morning training; 0500 hours. We each got up with minimal complaint, that is except for Trixy. Rachel, Skippsy, and I are waiting outside the house where we were going to train. Skippsy had issued the wake-up call about five minuets ago and Trixy, who was usually one of the first of us up in the mornings, still hadn't come to training. I frown and try to think of some quick options to why she wasn't here. _Option 1: she's still sleeping, option 2: she's skipping training, and option 3: she's ...sick._ I ponder on option 3 some more and then make my decision. I waddle over to Skippsy. "Skippsy." I say. Skippsy turns and looks at me.

"Yes, Marissa?" she replies.

"Did we ever have Trixy actually checked out after the snakebite?" Skippsy mulls this over for a minute and then shakes her head slowly.

"No...at least I don't think so..." We share a look and I nod. I waddle back into Rachel's house and go up the stairs to Trixy's room. I go to knock on the door but I find it open, so I just walked in. Trixy, as far as I could tell, was still in bed.

"Trixy?" A pillow barely moves.

"Umm?" Replies a muffled voice from under the mound of covers. I waddle over to the bed and pull back the sheets. Trixy has her head hidden under the pillow. I sigh and lift the pillow.

"Trixy." I gently shake her shoulder. She stirs a bit and looks up bleary eyed.

"Huh? What?" She looked slightly flushed. I frown and touch my flipper to her forehead.

"Hmm, are you feeling okay?" Trixy shakes her head.

"No not really." I nod.

"Trixy, I believe it may be best if you stay here and miss training." Trixy nods slowly.

"Okay...wait. We have training today?!"

"Yeah, Skippsy even issued a wake-up call."

"Really?" Trixy sits up, wide awake now. "Oh, Buckingham!" She goes to get out of bed and I shake my head.

"Trixy, you're staying here while Skippsy and Rachel and I go to destination B."

"But—"

"No buts." says Skippsy walking into the room. "What's your prognosis, Marissa?"

"Prognosis? Uh, she has a fever, and I think she needs to be kept under observation...also having some of the local doctors check her out would probably be a good idea." I say. Skippsy nods.

"But—" Trixy starts but Skippsy stops her again.

"I said no buts, Trixy. And I meant it. You are going to stay here and get medical attention while we go see about the next witness, understood?" Skippsy says. Trixy lowers her eyes and nods.

"Understood." Skippsy nods and we leave Trixy in the bedroom. We pass Rachel's mother, Mrs. Antonio. I stop and talk to her for a second.

"Um, hello." I say. She turns to me with a smile.

"Good morning, is there something I could help you with?" Mrs. Antonio asks. I nod.

"Well, not me, but Trixy rather. She was bitten by a rattlesnake on the way here and I was wondering if there were any doctors near here to have her checked at."

"Ah! A rattlesnake? What type?"

"Tropical."

"Oh dear. And the poor thing's still walking?! Ay yi yi. I'll have Fernando examine her in a few minutes." I nod.

"Thank you."

"De nada **(you're welcome)**." I then leave the house after Skippsy and Rachel.

* * *

(Alejandro's POV)

I waddle out of my house which is near a human's cattle pasture. Today I looked over at the fence and saw the angry red eyes of about fifteen bulls. That normally wouldn't have been anything of merit, but today it is. Reason 1, I am wearing a red bandana and reason 2, the fence is wide open and the bulls aren't in the enclosure. "Oh palitos de pescado! **(fish sticks)**." I exclaim. I stop dead in my tracks and the bulls stare at me. I smile sheepishly and wave before turning tail and sliding away. I hear the bulls snort and charge after me.

"Mmmoooooooooooooooo! Snort! Mooooo!" say the bulls who are stampeding after me. I glance behind me and see that their long, sharp, white horns are pointed downwards towards me. My face blanches. I then slide into the town.

"Cuidado con los toros locos! Están en estampida! **(Watch out for the crazy bulls! They are stampeding!)**" The townsfolk look up at me with wide eyes and scatter from the streets out of the path of the rampaging cows behind me. I then see Rachel, Skippsy, and Marissa. I motion for them to run; they look at me with confused expressions.

* * *

(Nobody's POV)

"¡Corre! ¡Los toros están llegando! ¡Los toros están llegando! **(Run! The bulls are coming! The bulls are coming!)**" Alejandro exclaims as he slides past Marissa, Skippsy, and Rachel.

"What—OH SWEET HERRING!" says Skippsy, her eyes widening as she sees the approaching stampede of irate bovines. She notices the red bandana around Alejandro's neck. "Alejandro, take off you bandana!"

"What?" He couldn't hear her very well over the rumble of hooves.

"TAKE OFF YOUR BANDANA!"

"Oh!" Alejandro quickly unties it and tosses it away. This action distracted a couple of the bulls, but the rest continued to rampage.

"Uh, situation 286, Rachel!" Rachel nods and grabs a long lasso from her bag. She uncoils most of it and circles it above her head. She then stands right in the path of the bulls and holds her ground. At the last second she tosses the rope around the neck of one of the cows and backflips onto its back as if she did this for a living. She then tosses a lasso to both Marissa and Skippsy and a large fishing net also to Skippsy. Skippsy and Marissa copy what Rachel had done and both take over a cow. Skippsy leads her bull over to a tree where she ties one end of the net. Rachel does the same with her end and the rest of the non-saddled bulls run into the net and get tangled in it. The girls unsaddle their cattle.

"Don't worry, toros pequiños **(little bulls)**, we'll get you all home soon." Rachel says patting a cow on its snout. It snorts at her angrily and she withdraws her flipper. The girls (minus Trixy) and Alejandro herd the bulls back to their pasture and lock the gate, but then when they go to do this, they discover that the latch has been sawed off.

"Hmmm, this latch has been cut." Marissa mumbles looking at the gate. Rachel pulls a new latch out of her bag and gives it to Marissa. Marissa then takes it and replaces the old latch with it and locks the gate.

* * *

(Nobody's POV)

-Deep in the Center of the Amazon Rainforest-

Agent J. waddles into the 'little' shack with a huge grin on his face. "How was that, Harri–er, I mean ma'am...?" he says upon entrance.

"It was...well, it served its purpose. Though, I don't know about all of the cows..." replies the puffin.

"What purpose?"

"It allowed me to steal the last part needed for my invention." She grins wickedly.

"Oh...am I off the hook?" The evil puffin mulls this over for a second and shrugs.

"Sure."

"So what's the next step of plan KTPAEOH?"

"Is that what I called that plan? Seriously?" Agent J. lowers his head.

"No ma'am."

"That's what I thought. So, try asking your question again correctly."

"What is the next step of plan Kidnap the Penguin and Experiment on Her?"

"The kidnaping of course! Did you not listen to me when I first went over the steps with you?!"

"I did I just kind of...forgot." The puffin face-wings herself in annoyance.

"Just get back to work." Agent J. salutes and goes back to the computer.

"Yes, ma'am."

* * *

(Skippsy's POV)

"You're sure this is the place, Marissa?" I ask. We are standing in front of a small, pitch black cave. Marissa looks at her map again.

"I'm positive it is, Skippsy." she replies. I shrug.

"Alright, if you say so." we then slide into the cave and immediately slide back out. A cloud of bats fly out after us. I give Marissa a look of annoyance and she sheepishly hides behind her map.

"Whoops...I meant the cave over there. Hehe, sorry about that." I shake my head with a sigh. We enter the other larger cave and Rachel passes everyone a headlight, which we all put on and turn on. We journey deep into the deep dark depths of the cave. Then I hear a small scuttling sound. I frown and slowly stalk over to the place.

"Waha!" shouts something warm and fuzzy that pounces on me.

"Whoa!" I exclaim falling backwards into a shallow cave stream. I swim to the surface sputtering from the cold shock. "What the duse!" I climb out of the water and see a kitten of some sort looking up at me grinning, her little canines gleaming in our headlights's lights.

"Haha! I pounced you!" the kitten says.

"So you did...What's your name, kid?"

"Nina. Nina Ocelot, daughter of Dr. Osvalda Ocelot."

"As in _the_ Dr. Osvalda who designed the security system for secret level 118 of the Brazilian base?! That Dr. Osvalda?!" Marissa says. Nina nods. "Oh my gosh!"

"Will your mother be back soon?" I ask interrupting Marissa. Nina shrugs.

"I dunno, maybe. Mamá ran out exclaiming about how here newest invention was stolen about thirty minutes ago. She said something about a black feather and if whoever has hurt her invention..."

"Wait! Thirty minutes ago?" I turn to my team. "That's when those ill-tempered bovines were on the loose! They must have been a distraction." My team nods. I see the kitten suddenly prick her little triangular ears and dash to the cave entrance. A long and lithe adult ocelot walks in frowning.

"Mamá! Mamá!" Nina says bounding around the cat. Osvalda sees us and narrows her eyes.

"Who are you and what are you doing in my cave?" Osvalda says.

"Ma'am, we mean you know harm. We are simply here to collect facts on the things you witnessed a few days back...and now about your missing invention." I say. She exhales and nods.

"It's about time that someone sent someone here about that." She walks over to us and sits down. "I suppose you want a full account of my invention, ¿sí?"

"Yes, please." Osvalda nods.

"Well, first of all my invention, the _Infinitizer_, was designed to make things be able to have unlimited storage space. Your headquarters, I believe, requested it specifically." I nod for her to continue. I glance over and see that Marissa appears to be taking notes. "Anyway, about thirty minutes ago I heard a crash and I went to go investigate it. When I returned to my lab, I discovered that my invention was missing and in its place was this jet black feather." She hands me the feather. I take it.

"We can get this DNA tested if needed back at base. Thank you for your information, Dr. Osvalda." She nods and we leave. Or rather, Rachel, Alejandro and I leave and Marissa stays behind. I notice this when we exited the cave. I give an agrivated sigh and go back for her.

"Oh my gosh! I can't believe I'm talking with _the_ Dr. Osvalda!" Marissa exclaims. "I have all of your books about your theories and, and..." I grab Marissa by the flipper and drag her out of the cave behind me. I hear the cats giggling after us. When Marissa and I exit the cave we all regroup and slide back to Rachel's house.


	13. Trixy Knows Electronics

**A.N.- Here is chapter 13! Enjoy! Oh! And I have a song near the end of it. The plain italicized parts of it are the Spanish version of it and the bolded, italicized, in parenthesis parts of it are the English version. It is not a direct translation between the two just FYI.**

**Disclaimer: I do not own the song _Hips Don't Lie _(English version)or _Sera Sera_ (Spanish version) by Shakira, nor the POM.**

Chapter 13: Trixy Knows Electronics

(Nobody's POV)

Trixy sits on her bed bored out of her mind.

_Why must I be the one that was bitten by some venomous serpent? Why do I always end up being the one kicked to the sidelines and the one to miss out on adventures? Why?_ Trixy looks out the window and sighs. _I'm so bored! _Someone knocks on the door.

"Uh, come in?" She says looking curiously at the door. Sr. Antonio, Rachel's father, waddles in.

"Hola. So, you were bitten by un serpiente venenosa, yes? **(poisonous snake)**" He asks. Trixy nods.

"Yes, sir."

"¿Dónde?"

"Um, what?"

"You do not speak Spanish?" Trixy shakes her head.

"No, sir."

"Ah, okay. Well, what I had asked was where? As in, where is the bite?"

"Oh! It's right here." Trixy turns around and shows him her right shoulder.

"Ay yi yi! That looks like it hurts."

"It does."

"Hmm, well, I'll be back with some disinfectant." Sr. Antonio leaves and returns with a small bottle and cloth. "Okay, this may sting a little." He then pours a little of the disinfectant on the bite.

"OH SWEET BUCKINGHAM!"

"I said it would sting a little." He chuckles as he wipes away the excess of the disinfectant.

"Yes, you said a little. That was way more than a little!"

"What can I say? It was infected. And an infected snakebite, especially tropical rattlesnake snakebites, are not good. They can be as deadly as the bite itself."

"Really?" Sr. Antonio nods.

"Sí, really...I still think its amazing that you're even able to talk to me now. You should be dead with how young and small you are."

"That's exactly what Marissa said..." Sr. Antonio collects the extra medical supplies and heads to the door.

"Well, if I were you, I'd be more careful. Okay?"

"So I'm done? I'm fine to go now?" He nods his head.

"Sí, niña, you may go now." He then leaves the room and Trixy runs out shortly after him.

_Yay! I'm free!_ Trixy leaves the house and arrives outside it at the exact same time that Skippsy, Marissa, and Rachel were returning.

"Ello, everyone!" she says. "So? What did I miss? What happened?"

"Nothing much, besides being chased by a small herd of bulls, talking with Dr. Osvalda Ocelot, and —" Marissa says before receiving an elbow to the side by Skippsy. Marissa looks at her commanding officer. "Wha—oh." She sees the look on Trixy's face. "I mean, we didn't do anything interesting at all...you probably did more interesting things here while we were gone."

"*Sigh* Okay, so what are we doing next?" Then Rachel's friends Carmelita and Maite waddle over to them.

"Hola, everyone. Rachel, there's a party tonight at Carlos's house, can you come?" Carmelita asks. Rachel looks at Skippsy. Skippsy nods.

"Sure, Rachel may go..." She says.

"You all are invite too, of course." Maite adds and Carmelita nods.

"Alright, a qué hora empieza? **(At what time does it start?)**" Rachel asks.

"A las siete y media de la noche. **(At 7:30 tonight)**" Maite says.

"Okay, we'll see you there." Carmelita and Maite then waddle away having invited the others. "So, Skippsy, what are we doing now?"

"Hmm, I'd actually like for us to go back to Rachel's house and look over our evidence...maybe see if it is possible to pinpoint Harriet's secret lair, you know things like that." Skippsy says. The others nod. Then, they all go back to Rachel's house.

* * *

-Somewhere Not Too Far from the Entrance to the Town-

Agent J. sits carefully in the bushes and watches the penguins discuss what they were going to do and when they were going to do it. Then his earpiece radio crackles to life. "Agent J., status report!" says his evil superior's voice on the radio. Agent J. sighs and and pushes the button on the side of the radio.

"They will all go to Carlos's party tonight." he says.

"Who the fish is Carlos?" Agent J. is silent for a moment.

"He's...an old friend."

"Friend or enemy, I don't care. You know what you are to do tonight." He nods even though he knew that the puffin couldn't see him. "Agent J.?"

"Yes?"

"You do remember what your job tonight is, correct?"

"Yes, ma'am."

"Good. Good." The crackling in the radio ceased and Agent J. was ocen again sitting in silence watching the penguins. He looked specifically at Alejandro and shakes his head with a sigh.

_I'm sorry...primo **(cousin)**, but I did warn you. Too bad you never listened to me._ He then slowly sneaks back into the cover of the jungle.

* * *

Rachel reaches into her backpack and pulls out the pictures they had received from Sr. Marcos and the feather from Dr. Osvadla and sits them on the table in front of them. Marissa flips through her notes. And Skippsy unrolls the map.

"Marissa, what intel have we collected so far?" Skippsy asks looking at her lieutenant. Marissa lifts a page on her clipboard.

"Strange lights and puffin shaped shadows in Brazil, and the same in Peru, except that also in Peru, Dr. Osvalda's newest invention was stolen. And we have a single black feather as evidence of this robbery." Marissa says reading the drawings on the papers.

"Um, Marissa, isn't there a way to see to whom that feather belongs? Wouldn't that help us some?" Trixy asks. Marissa pondered this a moment and then nods.

"I'm sure I could invent something that would allow us to do that...but I left my inventing tools back at our HQ."

"Um, no, wait, I think I may have them in here somewhere." Rachel says opening her backpack. She reaches in and frowns as she does not feel the things. She this time sticks her whole upper torso into the bag looking for the tools. "Ah hah! I thought I had put them in here!" She triumphantly gives the tools to Marissa. Marissa takes the tools with a nod of thanks.

"Um, do you happen to have some old electronics in there too?"

"Um, yeah." Rachel easily grabs a few random appliances out of the bag and gives it the scientist. Marissa then begins to work on the invention and Trixy watches her carefully.

"No, Marissa! Do not wire the blue and yellow wires togethah, or you'll short the whole thing out." Trixy says. Marissa looks up surprised.

"Huh?"

"And don't attach that dark brown wire to anything but metal."

"Um, why shouldn't I?"

"Because you use that as the grounding wire." The other three girls and Alejandro look at Trixy in astonishment. Trixy looks around confused. "What?"

"Trixy, you know about electronic wiring?" Skippsy asks. Trixy shrugs.

"I know some things about it. Why?"

"I just never knew that about you... Thinking about it, I don't really know a lot about things you can do..."

"Hehe, well, maybe it would be better to discuss this latah? Marissa, you should really use crimp-caps and electrical tape on that."

"What?" Marissa asks confused.

"You know...obviously you don't know...um, hold on a second I may have some in my bag." Trixy opens a pocket of her backpack and pulls out the little white wire caps and the black tape and a tool called a 'crimper.' Trixy takes two wires that Marissa was trying to connect and puts them in a white crimp-cap and crimps the cap with the crimpers. She then wraps the cap with electrical tape. "See? This way helps prevent electrical fires." Trixy smiles. The others continue to look at her in wonderment. Trixy blushes. "Um, I think that I, um, am going to, um, go for a walk while Marissa finishes her doohickey..." Trixy gets up and leaves the room somewhat embarrassed.

"Ahem, well, Marissa, I think you should get back to work on your invention thing...hey, maybe it won't explode this time." Skippsy says. Marissa nods and returns to working on her DNA scanning invention.

"Okay, the _DNA Classifier_, should be operational now." Marissa says. Rachel hands her the feather and Marissa scans it with the device. She then looks at the screen. "It appears that your gut instinct was correct, Skippsy; this is Harriet's feather."

"Never doubt the gut instinct, Marissa, you should know this by now."

"Yes, ma'am, I suppose I should." Marissa sighs. Trixy waddles back into the room.

"Well, Marissa, you didn't happen to add a GPS to that invention of yours, did you?" Trixy asks.

"GPS?"

"Yeah, you know so that we could track Harriet down." Marissa face-flippers herself.

"Of course. I really should have thought about that." Skippsy looks up at the ceiling and shakes her head.

"Why don't we just find the one place where the three countries connect and then search around there?" asks Alejandro looking at the map. Skippsy looks at him.

"Hmm? What do you mean, Alejandro?" Skippsy asks. Alejandro grabs a ruler and pencil and draws three straight lines from the three towns that had puffin sightings. The lines all cross in the middle and Alejandro circles this intersection.

"This is what I mean." he says pointing at the map.

"Oh, hmmm, yeah, I suppose we could start our search there tomorrow or the day after that."

"Huh? Why are we procrastinating to check that area, Skippsy?" Trixy asks.

"Well, first of all, there's that party tonight. Second of all, I'd still like to find out some more facts to what Harriet's scheme could be. Then, it would be easier to plan against it. And third of all, I just really don't want to get involved in a fish-fight right now." The others nod in understanding.

"How much longer until the party, Rachel?" Alejandro asks.

"Um, about an hour." Rachel replies looking at the clock.

* * *

-An Hour Later-

The five penguins slide over to Carlos's house. There's a stage set up in his backyard, there are different colored lights set up all over the place, and music is blaring. Carmelita and Maite see the groups and waddle over to them.

"Hola! Welcome to the party!" Maite says smiling.

"So, Rachel, are you going to sing?" asks Carmelita.

"What?" asks Rachel. Carmelita and Maite give her a look. "Oh, oh, you don't mean...? Oh, you do mean. You two are never going to let me live down senior year are you?"

"Nope." Maite says laughing. "Therefore, you and Alejandro must re-preform that song that you two sang at the after-graduation party." Rachel sighs.

"Alright, I'll do it...but only if Alejandro wants to do it, too." She looks back at Alejandro who nods.

"Sí! It sounds like it would be fun." he replies. Carmelita and Maite nod and lead the two to the stage.

"¡Hola, amigos! Vamos todos a dar una cálida bienvenida a sus artistas próximos Rachel y Alejandro. **(Hello, friends! Let's all give a warm welcome to your next performers Rachel and Alejandro.)**" Carmelita says into the microphone. Rachel and Alejandro get up onto the stage and take the microphones from her.

"Gracias, Carmelita. **(Thank you, Carmelita.)** Now, are you all ready? Good! Alright, uno, dos, tres, cuatro! **(one, two, three, four!)**" Alejandro says.

"_Yo no sabia que ella bailaba asi_

_Aquella noche yo me enloqueci_

_Como se llama?.. Bonita... Mi casa... Su casa" _Alejandro sings.

**_(I never really knew that she could dance like this_**

**_She make a man want to speak Spanish_**

**_Como se llama? Bonita, mi casa, su casa)_**

_"Tu sabes que palabra usar_

_Para hacerme suspirar_

_Mantente atento_

_Ya va llegando el momento. _

**_(Oh baby when you talk like that_**

**_You make a woman go mad_**

**_So be wise and keep on_**

**_Reading the signs of my body)_**

_"Sera , sera,_

_Que lo que aun no fue,_

_Es porque fue para hacerce hoy_

_Sientes , te siento_

_Mira asi baby asi es perfecto." _Rachel sings.

**_(And I'm on tonight_**

**_You know my hips don't lie_**

**_And I'm starting to feel it's right_**

**_All the attraction, the tension_**

**_Don't you see baby, this is perfection)_**

_"Amor yo no me canso de verte_

_Y me estas enloqueciendo_

_en mis brazos yo quiero tenerte_

_Y que sientas lo que siento_

_Cuando te veo caminar_

_No me puedo controlar amor_

_Te mueves como el viento_

_Solo quisiera imaginar_

_que eres duena de tu corazon_

_Y detener el tiempo._

**_(Hey girl, I can see your body moving_**

**_And it's driving me crazy_**

**_And I didn't have the slightest idea_**

**_Until I saw you dancing_**

**_And when you walk up on the dance floor_**

**_Nobody cannot ignore the way you move your body, girl_**

**_And everything's so unexpected, the way you right and left it_**

**_So you can keep on shaking it)_**

_"Yo no sabia que ella bailaba asi_

_Aquella noche yo me enloqueci_

_Como se llama?..Bonita..Mi casa..Su casa" _Alejandro sings.

**_(I never really knew that she could dance like this_**

**_She make a man want to speak Spanish_**

**_Como se llama? Bonita, mi casa, su casa)_**

_"Tu sabes que palabra usar_

_Para hacerme suspirar_

_Mantente atento_

_Ya va llegando el momento_

**_(Oh baby when you talk like that_**

**_You make a woman go mad_**

**_So be wise and keep on_**

**_Reading the signs of my body)_**

_"Sera, sera_

_Que lo que aun no fue_

_Es porque fue para hacerce hoy_

_Sientes, te siento_

_Sí baby asi es perfecto_

_Lo que sera sera_

_Y lo que aun no fue_

_Es porque fue para que se haga_

_Me buscas, te encuentro_

_Mira asi baby asi es perfecto._

**_(I'm on tonight_**

**_You know my hips don't lie_**

**_And I'm starting to feel you boy_**

**_Come on let's go, real slow_**

**_Don't you see baby asi es perfecto_**

**_I know I'm on tonight my hips don't lie_**

**_And I'm starting to feel it's right_**

**_All the attraction, the tension_**

**_Don't you see baby, this is perfection)_**

_"Amor ahora que empiezas a verme_

_De esa forma animal_

_Ya no se lo que piensas hacerme_

_Si esta bien o si esta mal_

_Mi voluntad se hecho a perder_

_No hay ciego peor que el_

_Que no quiere ver_

_Si lo que hago con las manos_

_Los deshago con los pies_

_Lo que ahi es lo que vez" _sings Rachel.

**_(Oh boy, I can see your body moving_**

**_Half animal, half man_**

**_I don't, don't really know what I'm doing_**

**_But you seem to have a plan_**

**_My will and self-restraint_**

**_Have come to fail now, fail now_**

**_See, I'm doing what I can, but I can't so you know_**

**_That's a bit too hard to explain)_**

_"Baila en la calle de noche_

_Baila en la calle de dia" _Sings Alejandro.

_"Baila en la calle de noche_

_Baila en la calle de dia" _they sing together.

_"Yo no sabia que ella bailaba asi_

_Aquella noche yo me enloqueci_

_Como se llama?..Bonita..Mi casa...Su casa..." _Alejandro sings.

**_(I never really knew that she could dance like this_**

**_She make a man want to speak Spanish_**

**_Como se llama? Bonita, mi casa, su casa)_**

_"Tu sabes que palabra usar_

_Para hacerme suspirar_

_Mantente atento_

_Ya va llegando el momento" _Rachel sings.

**_(Oh baby when you talk like that_**

**_You know you got me hypnotized_**

**_So be wise and keep on_**

**_Reading the signs of my body)_**

_"Señorita feel the conga_

_Mueve tu cintura como toda Colombia" _Alejandro sings.

**_(Señorita, feel the conga_**

**_Let me see you move like you come from Colombia)_**

_"Mi vida en barranquilla_

_Se baila asi, say it_

_"Sera, sera_

_Que lo que aun no fue_

_Es porque fue para hacerce hoy_

_Sientes, te siento.._

_Sí baby asi es perfecto_

_Lo que sera sera_

_Y lo que aun no fue_

_Es porque fue para que se haga_

_Me buscas, Te encuentro_

_Mira asi baby sí es perfecto" _Rachel sings.

**_(I'm on tonight, my hips don't lie_**

**_And I'm starting to feel you boy_**

**_Come on let's go, real slow_**

**_Baby, like this is perfecto_**

**_Oh, you know I'm on tonight and my hips don't lie_**

**_And I'm starting to feel it's right_**

**_The attraction, the tension_**

**_Baby, like this is perfection)_**

The song finishes and the two take a bow to the delight of the crowd. Rachel looks up and sees a familiar face. Those eyes...she knew that she knew those cold, fierce green eyes, but from where? Rachel ponders the eyes for a second and then she remembers. "Juarez. Those were Juarez's eyes." She then follows Alejandro back to their friends.

"You two were fantastico! **(fantastic)**" Carmelita says. A penguin with gray eyes and black bangs partially covering his left eye waddles over to them.

"Sí! Sí! Your performance was muy buena! **(very good**)" he says.

"Ah! Carlos, long time no see, mi amigo! **(my friend)**" says Alejandro. Carlos nods.

"That it has been, Alejandro. And Rachel, it's nice to see you again, too." Rachel nods.

"Yes, it was nice to see you all again before we must leave for our next location." Rachel says. Carmelita shakes her head.

"You need to take it slow some point time in your life, Rachela, before you run yourself to exhaustion." she says. Rachel frowns.

"How many times have I asked you to not call me that?" Carmelita laughs.

"Whoops, I forgot, sorry." Rachel shakes her head with a sigh. She looks over to the left and sees those angry green eyes again in a bush.

"What in the world?" Rachel murmurs. The others look at where she was looking.

"What is it, Rachel?" Alejandro asks.

"I could have sworn that I saw Juarez."

"JUAREZ!" they exclaim.

"Impossible!" Maite exclaims.

"It couldn't have been!" Carmelita exclaims.

"Rachel, you must be dreaming." Carlos says. Rachel rubs the back of her neck.

"Hehe, well, it may not have been him. It just really looked like him, though." she Rachel says. Alejandro doesn't say anything, but he believed Rachel.

_If Juarez is back, that means...no. I will not let him hurt my Rachel. _He thinks silently.

* * *

-In the Bush Where Rachel Had Seen Eyes-

Agent J. sits back on his heels. "Oh darn, I've been spotted!" he murmurs but he continues to watch the penguins. His earpiece buzzes. "Yes?"

"Are you in position?"

"Yes. But I may need a better one. I...I keep loosing my visual on them."

"Ugh, fine. But whatever you do, make sure you remain unseen."

"Hehe, of course!" He hangs up the earpiece and slowly stalks to another position. He noticed that Alejandro was looking towards him and he stops. "Darn." Alejandro looks away and he continues to move away with a sigh of relief.


	14. When Walking in the Dark

**A.N. — Okay, here is the next chapter! I hope you like it :D**

Chapter 14: When Walking in the Dark

(Nobody's POV)

Skippsy looks down at her watch. It reads 0100 hours. Skippsy shakes her head with a sigh. _I had better start rounding up the girls._ She finds Trixy leaning against the fence trying to keep from falling asleep. "Trixy." Trixy looks up at her leader.

"Yes, Skippsy?" Trixy yawns.

"I think it's about time we started back to Rachel's." Trixy nods and follows Skippsy slowly. The y waddle over to Marissa who was trying to talk to some penguin, but she was failing because she couldn't understand a single word that he said to her. "Marissa."

"Hmm?" Marissa asks.

"Trixy and I are going back to Rachel's, but you can stay a little longer if you want."

"Wait, what time is it?"

"After one AM." Marissa spit-takes the sip of punch that she had just taken.

"One AM? Wow, I didn't realize that it was so late already. I think I'll go on back with you two." Skippsy nods. She then finds Rachel.

"Hey, Rachel, Marissa, Trixy, and I are heading back to your house since its already after one, you can stay here, though, if you'd like." Rachel nods.

"Okay, I'll start over in another hour or so." she replies.

"Alright, just make sure that you don't stay up too, too late." Skippsy, Trixy, and Marissa then leave the party and go back to Rachel's house.

*Brrrrrriiinnnng! Brrrrrrrriiiiinnnnng!*

Alejandro frowns and pulls out his cell phone. "Hey, I'll be right back, I have to take this call." he says. He then waddles out into the quieter front yard and answers his phone. "Hello?"

"Agent Alejandro, this is General Bob of the assignments personnel." says General Bob.

"Okay..."

"We have discovered that you are out on an unassigned mission and you are to report back to base immediately."

"W–What? I thought I had all of the paperwork done before I left..."

"Did I ask that? No, I don't think I did. Just get your sorry tail over here pronto, got it?" Alejandro nods.

"Y-Yes, sir." He then hangs up the phone with a sigh. _Dang it! I don't have the time for this! _He walks back over to Rachel. "Rachel, I have to go back to the base, according to them I'm not allowed on this mission." Alejandro rolls his eyes and Rachel looks at him and nods slowly.

"Okay, Alejandro, I'll tell Skippsy when I get home." she replies. Alejandro nods and slides off in the direction of the base. He knew this area by heart so, even though it was dark, he could easily find his way back without getting lost.

* * *

Agent J. hangs up the phone he had with a small chuckle. "Oh, Alejandro, you're just as gullible as you were five years ago. Oh well, that just makes my job even simpler." he mumbles. He pulls out a pair of night-vision binoculars and looks around. "Darn it. There's still too many witnesses. I wonder how much longer this party has until it's over anyway."

"Agent J. have you don't it yet?!" shouts a voice over his ear-piece suddenly. Agent J. flinches and turns down the volume of the radio.

"No ma'am. She hasn't left the party yet."

"Then just go in there and grab her! I'm getting tired of all of this waiting."

"I can't do that! There would be too many witnesses! And you know that I can't be witnessed! I'm still banned from this country, remember?"

"No, I don't remember. But, alright, just see if you can hurry up. I'm bored." Agent J. turns the ear-piece back off and growls in his frustration.

"If she doesn't stop calling me because she is bored I swear I'll..." He stops and lifts the binoculars to his eyes again. "Now that's more like it."

* * *

"Adios, amigos! **(Goodbye, friends!)**" Rachel waves as she leaves the party. The surrounding jungle is dark. Well, everything is dark for that matter, and it is starting to fog. Rachel waddles back to her house. Then she trips and falls face first onto the ground with a grunt of surprise. "What in the world? I don't remember that being there." She then shrugs and stands back up. After brushing herself back off, she continues on her way. She takes a step and finds that something is pulling on her ankle. "Huh?" She kneels down to try to pull the trap off and a net suddenly springs up around her. A shadow waddles out in front of the net laughing darkly.

"Hola, Rachela, cómo estás? **(Hello, Rachela, how are you?)**" he says. Rachel narrows her eyes trying to see who was talking to her.

"Quién eres? **(Who are you?)**" she says.

"Quién soy? Quién soy?! **(Who am I? Who am I?!)** How is it possible that you don't remember me, Rachela?" He then steps out of the shadows and Rachel sharply inhales.

"You...You..."

"Yes, me, me. I'm back, and you're mine."

"No."

"Yes, and there's no one here to help you weasel out this time unlike last time. No teachers, no principles...no Alejandros." Rachel glares at him.

"I will get away, Juarez. You know I will."

"Ah, but, Rachela, that is where you are wrong, my dear. You have no way to escape. You, my dear, are trapped." Rachel shakes her head in disbelief and goes to dig through her back for something, anything to cut through the net's ropes. But her bag isn't there. "Oh, I'm sorry, are you looking for this?" Juarez holds out a tan backpack with an evil smirk. "Oh well, I guess that's just tough luck for you, Rachela."

"What do you want, Juarez?"

"You know perfectly well what I want. Revenge. Revenge on you. Revenge on Alejandro. Revenge on all of Peru. And this time I WILL succeed. This time I am not alone."

"What?" Juarez shakes his head with a smirk.

"Nope. You'll just have to wait until later to know what...or whom rather." He reaches into Rachel's bag and pulls out a gas mask for himself and a sleeping-gas smoke-bomb. He pulls the key out of the smoke-bomb and tosses it right under Rachel's net. Rachel is out cold in a matter of seconds. The smoke clears and Juarez pulls off the mask. He pushes the button on his ear-piece radio. "I've got her."

"It's about time that you did something right." Juarez rolls his eyes. "Well, you know what to do with her."

"Yes, ma'am. We'll be there momentarily." He hangs up the radio and lifts the limp Rachel and waddles back through the jungle.


	15. Harriet and Her Experimental Laser

**A.N.-Okay, this is another cliffhanger...please don't hate me for it! Because it may be a bit on the rough side...Enjoy, please!**

Chapter 15: Harriet and Her Experimental Laser

(Nobody's POV)

Alejandro rushes into the main HQ and slides into General Bob's office. "I-I'm here, s-sir." he pants putting a flipper to the wall to stabilize himself. General Bob turns around and looks at him with a raised non-existent eyebrow.

"And why exactly are you here, Alejandro? I thought you were out on a mission with those girls." he says. Alejandro just stares at him and then face-flippers himself.

"My gosh! I've been had!"

"What?"

"That devious son-of-a-gun! If he's harmed even a feather on her head ...I swear I'll...I'll..." Bob slaps Alejandro.

"Snap out of it man! Now tell me what in the world are you babbling on about!"

"Juarez. He's returned and I'm sure that he's got Rachel."

"Well, do you know for sure that she's missing?"

"Yes and no."

"Agent, don't make me slap you again. Speak plainly."

"I don't know for sure, but..."

"But you can just feel that she's in trouble?" says Commander Grace Gray waddling into the room. She had overheard part of their conversation and felt that she needed to butt in. Alejandro and General Bob snap quick salutes and Commander Gray rolls her eyes. "At ease. Now answer the question, Agent Alejandro."

"Yes, ma'am, that's exactly it." Commander Gray nods with a half-smile (her first one in fifteen years).

"Well, then what are you still doing here?! Go get her!" Alejandro nods and slides from the room and Grace holds back a small chuckle. General Bob looks at her. She frowns. "What?" General Bob shakes his head and looks at the floor.

"Nothing, ma'am." he says.

"Get back to work, Bob." He salutes.

"Aye, miss." Commander Gray leaves the room.

* * *

Skippsy is pacing the floor; Marissa and Trixy are sitting nearby watching her. "Where is she? Rachel should have been here hours ago!"

"Maybe she fell asleep there, Skippsy." says Trixy. Skippsy shakes her head.

"No, that wouldn't be like her at all."

"Hmm, maybe we need to go back and collect data." Marissa suggests. Skippsy considers this but shakes her head.

"No, all that sciencey stuff would just take way too long..."

"Well, then where do YOU think she is, Skippsy?"

"Marissa, if I knew, do you think that I'd be over here pacing as I am now?"

"I suppose not...So what are we going to do about her then?" Skippsy shrugs.

"I don't know..."

"What if...what if Harriet has her?!" Trixy suddenly says. Marissa and Skippsy turn towards her.

"What?"

"What if Harriet has kidnapped Rachel! Who knows what horrible danger she could be in! Especially since Harriet wants revenge on you, Skippsy...she may think that she could get to you through Rachel...or—" Skippsy puts up a flipper for Trixy to stop.

"Trixy, that's enough. Marissa, what's the percent of chance that this may be the case?"

"Ummm," Marissa says pulling out her abacus. She moves the beads around. "I'd say about that there's a 44.629 % chance, Skippsy." Skippsy nods.

"Alright. Then we need to go find Harriet's lair and save our soldier. Rachel, map por favor **(please)**... Oh yeah right. Um, Marissa, you don't happen to have a copy of the map, do you?" Marissa looks in her backpack and shakes her head.

"I'm afraid not." Skippsy nods with a sigh.

"Well, I guess that we'll just have to do this the old fashion way."

"What way is that, Skippsy?" asks Trixy.

"The way that includes nothing more than instinct, a compass, and luck."

* * *

Rachel slowly wakes up. _Ohhhh, my head..._She opens her eyes and looks around. _Dónde estoy?_ **(Where am I?)** She then notices that she is chained by her flippers and feet to a large experimenting table and her bag is sitting a few feet in front of her, just out of reach. She frowns and looks around for any possible escape options. She sees none.

"Hello, Rachel." says a puffin waddling into the room from the shadows. Rachel narrows her eyes and growls. The puffin has hazel eyes with long eyelashes and a pale purple stripe on her beak. She has a small daisy in her feathers to the left side of her head.

"Harriet!" Juarez follows Harriet into the room. "Juarez!"

"Ah, you mean Agent J.? Well, yes, it is us." Harriet says. Rachel glares at them both making Juarez smirk.

"Not so tough now, are you, Rachela?" he says.

"Stop calling me that, Juarez! It's Rachel. R-A-Ch-E-L. **(A.N.–Ch is a letter in the Spanish alphabet, just FYI.)** It does not end with an A at the end." Juarez cups her chin with his flipper.

"Frankly, Rachela, I don't care." Rachel jerks her head away from him and if looks could kill, the look she gave him would have killed Juarez thrice over. "Oh stop with all of the mean looks." Harriet rolls her eyes.

"Agent J., I know I said you could have your fun with her, but it's starting to get on my nerves." Harriet says. "Let's just get on with things." Juarez frowns but nods.

"Yes, ma'am." He then slides over to a laser-like device and pushes it closer to Rachel. He presses some buttons and adjusts it until its sights are perfectly aligned to Rachel. He pushes one last button and steps away from it with a sickeningly evil grin on his face.

"What is that?" Rachel asks.

"That? That is my newest toy _Experimental Ray 13579_." Harriet says.

"What does it do?"

"I don't really know, which is where you come in. You, Rachel, will be my first test subject."

"Why me?"

"Why not you? You are the perfect specimen."

"And how am I that exactly?"

"You're strong, healthy, tall, stubborn, fierce, and loyal; and a combination of all of those things should make sure that you survive the test. But if you don't, then oh well. It won't be a large loss for me."

"Oh..." Harriet grins.

"Is it ready, Agent J.?" Juarez nods.

"Yes, ma'am." he says.

"Alright, then let's start it up." She rubs her wings together as she and Juarez walked from the room into a viewing room. Juarez throws a switch and Harriet laughs maniacally. The laser of unknown purpose comes to life. It slowly turns the blue ray of light nearer and nearer to Rachel. Rachel tries to bend herself away from it as far as she could. The ray continues on and it finally hits her. Rachel screams.


	16. I Wish I Had a Map and Dynamite

**A.N. –Okay, here is yet another cliffhanger! XD enjoy!**

Chapter 16: I Wish I Had a Map and Dynamite

(Nobody's POV)

_I swear, I'm going to seriously hurt him if he's hurt Rachel. I don't care if he's my cousin. I don't care if we were once friends. I don't care if he apologizes for every idiotically evil thing he's ever done. If he has even misplaced a single feather upon her head, that'll be it for him. I'll make the authorities' job much easier. I will._ Alejandro slides silently through the dark jungle, frowning angrily. And what made it worst was that he has no idea where he is going, but he had this feeling that he was on the right track, so he continued on in that direction. It is then that he hears the scream. He skids to a stop and listens and follows the scream. If anyone had looked at him, they would have been able to easily see the anger building in his eyes.

* * *

"Okay, Marissa, what does the compass read?" Skippsy asks looking at her second in command. Marissa studies the compass.

"Ummmm...North?" Marissa replies.

"Is that a question or an answer, soldier?"

"Uh...both?" Skippsy face-flippers herself with a sigh.

"Just give it here." Marissa hands the compass to Skippsy. "No, Marissa, it reads West,and we want to go South-West. So we line up the line to North and go South-West from there...which means we go this way! Come on, girls!" Trixy and Marissa follow Skippsy right to the edge of a cliff. "WHOA! Okay...maybe we needed to go North-West..."

"Skippsy, I think I know why no one uses the old way anymore." Trixy says.

"And why is that, Trixy?" Skippsy asks.

"Because all the people who do end up falling off cliffs and dying." Skippsy shakes her head with a small sigh and pats Trixy on the head.

"Oh, young naïve, Trixy, you don't know the half of it. What I wouldn't give for a map of South America about now..."

"You mean like this one?" Trixy pulls a map out of her bag and Skippsy and Marissa look at her flabbergasted.

"You've had that the whole time and you never told us?!" Skippsy and Marissa both exclaim. Trixy shrugs.

"You nevah asked." Skippsy takes a deep breath in an attempt to restrain her sudden wish to slap her youngest soldier silly. Skippsy then takes the map from Trixy and looks at it with a flashlight, even though it is just becoming light.

"Okay, we were supposed to go straight West. Let's go, girls!" Trixy and Marissa nod and follow their leader.

* * *

"Alright, Agent J. That's enough." Harriet says. Juarez nods and flips the switch again. Rachel slumps back gasping for breath. Juarez then presses another button releasing her from the experimenting table. Rachel slides down it and onto the floor. She lays there a moment in too much pain to move. Then it is as if something had switched in her brain. She got up off the floor and turned towards the viewing room that Juarez and Harriet are in.

"Juarez! When I get to you, I'm going to tear you to shreds! You can bet on that!" she shouts. Juarez cannot hear her.

"I can't hear you." he mouths. Rachel glares at him and then hiccups and finds a piece of paper in her flippers. She looks at it with wide eyes. _Did I just do what I think I just did?_ She shakes her surprise from her head and gets an idea. She points at the paper and then at Juarez. She then tears the paper into little pieces and puts them all into a small pile. She then points at Juarez and then the pile. Juarez got the message that time. He gulps.

Meanwhile, Rachel looks around for someway of an exit. There isn't one that she can see. Then she gets another idea. _Now if only I had some dynamite..._ She coughs and a bright red stick of TNT is in her flippers. She stares at it in horror and amusement. _Well, a lighter would be nice too.._. She coughs again and she is now holding a lighter. Rachel then uses the lighter to spark the dynamite and then she chucks the TNT at the nearest wall and ducks down behind the experiment table for protection.

_***KAAABOOOOOOM!***_

Rachel peaks around the table to see a huge, gaping hole in the wall. "Awesome." She then slides towards it.

"Not so fast, penguin." says Harriet jumping into her path. "Now, Agent J!"

"Huh?" Rachel turns around just as Juarez shoots here with a tranquilizer dart. She looks around for a moment slightly disoriented and then she slowly blackens out.

**A.N.- Agh! My chapters are getting short again! NO! XD Sorry, I just had to say that...**


	17. Tuna Fight

**A.N.- Okay, here is chapter 17! Enjoy! :D**

Chapter 17: Tuna Fight

(Nobody's POV)

"Fascinating." murmurs Harriet as she examines an x-ray photo that she had just taken of the inside of the still unconscious Rachel. "Purely fascinating."

"What's so fascinating about it, Harriet?" Juarez asks as he looks over the puffin's shoulder at the image.

"It appears that from the blast of the ray combination of my inventions and that invention of Dr. Osvalda's that we stole, Rachel now can store large amounts of weaponry and other things inside her stomach...which is also as gross as it is interesting."

"Oh...so what are we going to do to her now?"

"What do you mean?"

"I mean that Skippsy is not here, and whom I want revenge on is sitting here before us still breathing..."

"Agent J. you will have time for your revenge, okay? Just not right now." Juarez crosses his flippers and turns away murmuring about how stupid that was and why couldn't he kill her now. "Oh shut up already. You sound like a kindergartener."

"What!"

"You heard me." Juarez frowns.

* * *

_This looks like a possible secret hideout. Let's hope it is the right one. _Alejandro slides over to the small hut and opens the door. It opens easily and he finds himself in a well-lit room. There was a still steaming cup of coffee on the table, so this hut must be currently in use. He looks around and sees another door. There is light coming from underneath it. He cautiously approaches it and slowly opens the door. There is nothing but a dark abyss. He then sees a small metal ladder. _Come on, Alejandro, you big chicken, you can do it._ Alejandro takes a deep breath to swallow his fear of heights and starts down the little ladder. "For Rachela!" he says.

* * *

"This should be the place, Skippsy." Marissa says pointing a flipper at the small hut in front of them. Skippsy nods.

"Wonderful. Now, how are we getting in?" Skippsy asks.

"Um...the front door?" Skippsy shrugs.

"Eh, why not. Let's go save our soldier, girls!" They then slide off toward the small hut.

* * *

_*CRASH!*_

Harriet turns her head towards the door. "What was that?" Juarez shrugs.

"I don't know." he replies.

"Well, go check it out then." Harriet gives him a little shove and Juarez waddles over to the door. He opens it and receives a nice punch to the beak. He staggers back and Alejandro enters the room growling. He sees the unconscious Rachel and rushes to her ignoring the protests of Harriet and the whines of Juarez. He checks her pulse and then turns back toward Juarez.

"Juarez Remarque Mateo, when I'm done with you, you won't be recognizable. " Alejandro says as he slowly walks toward Juarez. Juarez gulps with wide, terrified eyes and runs. "Come back here, you coward!" Harriet just leans back against the wall and watches Juarez and Alejandro in amusement. She didn't notice the other three penguins entering the room stealthily along the ceiling with suction-cups on their flippers. Skippsy mentally counts to three and then motions for her girls to flip down back to the floor.

"Harriet." Skippsy says. Harriet turns her head startled to hear her name.

"Wha—Oh. Hello, Skippsy."

"What have you done to my soldier?" Harriet shrugs.

"Nothing much...I just changed a few of her brainwaves and made it possible for her to store large amounts of things within her gut."

"Wha-What?!" Harriet smirks.

"Yep." Suddenly fish fly all over the room. Harriet and Skippsy look towards Alejandro and Juarez who were still at it. They had 'accidentally' exploded a crate of fish. Harriet and Skippsy each pick up a tuna fish. "Ah yes, so we finish this with the fishes."

"Just like in Sweden." They then begin to sword fight with the fish. Harriet thrusts her fish at Skippsy and Skippsy parries her thrust and returns a thrust to Harriet. Harriet ducks and whacks at Skippsy's head with tuna fish. Skippsy doges the fish and with a well aimed toss, hits Harriet's tuna out of her grasp. Harriet looks at Skippsy with a sheepish grin.

"Hehe...I think I'll be leaving now. Ta ta for now, Skippsy!" Harriet then runs and Skippsy takes after her.

Meanwhile, Trixy and Marissa are examining Rachel. "I-Is she a-alive, Marissa?" Trixy asks. Marissa nods.

"Yes, but she's unconscious...and I don't have the equipment to see how badly hurt she is. We need to get her to a base hospital." Trixy nods.

"I suppose you mean the Brazilian one?" Marissa nods.

"Yes...well, while they're keeping Harriet and Juarez busy, let's get Rachel out of here." Trixy takes one of Rachel's flippers and puts it over her shoulder and Marissa does the same. They manage to carry and drag her all the way to the entrance to the basement. They stop to take a break. Rachel wasn't the lightest penguin to be carrying around, nor were Trixy and Marissa the strongest penguins to be doing so.

"¿Necesitaís ayuda? **(Do you all need help?)**" Alejandro asks waddling over to them. They nod.

"Yes thank you...what happened to Juarez?" Marissa asks. Alejandro points over to him. Juarez is lying hog-tied and gagged in the floor not too far from them. "Oh, okay." Alejandro nods and carefully lifts Rachel. He holds her close against his shoulder with one flipper and slowly climbs up the ladder with his other flipper. Marissa follows him up. Trixy stays down with Skippsy though. She slides over to Skippsy.

"I will be back, Skippsy. You can bet on it." Harriet says as she flies out a secret opening.

"Darn it! She got away. Again." Skippsy mumbles.

"Um, Skippsy, we still caught Juarez, though." Trixy says.

"Huh?" Trixy points at Juarez. And Skippsy chuckles. "Remind me to never get in between Alejandro and Rachel. Come on, Trixy." Trixy heads up the ladder and Skippsy follows closely behind while carrying Juarez up.


	18. From Hospital Beds to Date Planning

**A.N.- Okay, here is the next chapter! Enjoy!**

Chapter 18: From Hospital Bed to Date Planning

(Nobody's POV)

Rachel slowly opens her eyes and realizes that she was being carried. _Um, what's going on here? Where am I? Who the fish is carrying me?_ She leans her head back a bit to try to see who it was. Her carrier notices this movement and looks down at her.

"Hola, Rachela." Alejandro says. Rachel smiles a small smile in relief and goes back to unconsciousness. Alejandro holds her a bit closer and looks to Skippsy. "How much longer until we're there?" Skippsy shrugs.

"I don't know...Marissa, how much longer?" Skippsy says.

"I'd say about fifteen minutes sliding, or twenty minutes walking." Marissa says. "Either way, we're not too, too far away." Skippsy nods.

"Okay, so about twenty minutes, Alejandro." Skippsy says. Alejandro shakes his head with a small chuckle.

"You do know that I could hear Marissa's answer, right?" Alejandro says. Skippsy shrugs.

"Yes, but you could have just as easily been in la-la land thinking about you and Rachel and hearts and..." Skippsy looks at the look on Alejandro's face and bursts out laughing. "Hahaha! I was just kidding! Gees, there wasn't any reason for you to go that color."

"I-I don't know what you're talking about, Skippsy." Alejandro says suddenly finding the surrounding trees very interesting.

"No, I think we all, including you, know what Skippsy's talking about." Trixy says. Alejandro looks over his shoulder at her.

"Nope, sorry. I'm afraid that I don't...hmm, what a pretty leaf..."

"Yes, it's very pretty, but we aren't changing the subject." Skippsy says. "And I saw you blush, so you can't deny that you like her."

"Yes I like her, she is a nice friend."

"You know that that's not what I meant." Skippsy gives him the 'look' and crosses her flippers. Alejandro opens his mouth to deny it but closes it. There wasn't a way he could deny it to _that_ look.

"Alright, fine. I may have a small crush on her."

"Small? Did I hear that correctly?" Marissa and Trixy quietly snicker. And Alejandro sighs.

"Alright, maybe I like her a lot, okay? Just don't tell her."

"Don't worry, our beaks are sealed." Skippsy gives Alejandro a reassuring wink. "Well, anyway, why don't we hurry up for Rachel's sake?" The others nod and the walk a bit faster towards the base.

* * *

Rachel wakes up and finds herself in a hospital bed hooked up to a machine. "Um...where am I?" she says.

"You're in the hospital, miss." says a nurse that was attaching Rachel to yet another machine.

"And why exactly am I in the hospital?"

"I don't know, miss." The nurse then leaves the room. Rachel frowns in her confusion and tries her hardest to remember what had happened that would have her here, in a hospital bed, of all places. But she could not remember. Alejandro suddenly sticks his head into the room.

"Um, hola." he says. Rachel smiles.

"Alejandro! Surely you can tell me what I'm doing here!"

"You don't remember?" Rachel shakes her head.

"No. I remember leaving Carlos's party and tripping in the woods on the way home...and that's it."

"So you don't remember Juarez and Harriet kidnapping and experimenting on you?"

"Uh, no."

"Well, that's probably a good thing." Alejandro waddles over to right beside Rachel's bed.

"Probably...Where's Skippsy and the others?" Alejandro shrugs.

"I don't know...they're probably trying to get clearance so that you girls can go back to America."

"Oh. Well, that will be nice, I guess." Alejandro nods slowly.

"Yeah I guess it will be for you girls." Rachel looks at Alejandro for a second and sighs.

"I'll miss you though." Rachel whispers sadly. Alejandro looks up at her.

"Huh?"

"I said I'd miss you." Alejandro smiles.

"Well, now. Do you think that I would just let you go back to America without me after you have been in the hospital? I don't think so!" Rachel's face immediately brightens.

"Really?!" Alejandro nods.

"Sí, really. And also, you know we still haven't went on that catch-up on old times dinner thing..." Rachel nods.

"Very true...you know, maybe it wouldn't be too bad just to call it a...date?"

"A d-date?"

"Yeah, a date. Or if you're not fine with that we can continue to call it..whatever you just called it."

"No, no, I think calling it a date is a great idea." Rachel's smiles.

"Okay, so I suppose we could go out on it on our first night back in America." Alejandro nods.

"Sí, that would be muy fantastico! **(very fantastic)**"

* * *

Skippsy, Marissa, and Trixy smile as they listen to Rachel's and Alejandro's conversation. "Mission accomplished, girls." says Skippsy and they all high-five.

"So, what are we doing now, Skippsy?" asks Trixy.

"Well, first of all we have to wait for the all-clear for Rachel from the doctor. Speaking of which, here he comes now..."

**A.N.- Hmm, I wondere what the doctor is going to say about Rachel... ;)**


	19. To Operate? Or Not to Opperate?

**A.N.- Okay, here is the next chapter! I hope you enjoy the chapter!**

Chapter 19: To Operate? Or Not to Operate?

(Nobody's POV)

"Hey, doc!" Skippsy calls as she flags down the doctor as he came back with Rachel's blood test reports.

"Yes?" the doctor says stopping.

"So what's up with my soldier?"

"Your soldier? To whom area you referring, miss?"

"First of all, I'm Skipper Skippsy. And second of all, my soldier Sargent Rachel Antonio."

"Ah, her..."

"Yes, her. So, what's her deal?"

"Erm, her 'deal', Miss Skippsy, is that she has completely lost any memory of yesterday and has some cosmic storage _thing_ in her stomach. This storage stomach thing isn't completely unheard of...I believe that there has been one other reported case of this...but I don't really know much about it. I know that it can lead to possible speech problems from objects being regurgitated irritating the larynx. And also, I think I've heard that it can lead to slight insanity."

"Is there a way to fix it?" The doctor shrugs.

"I'm not sure...I'm sure we could run some more elaborate tests to see if a cure can be found...or maybe we could try completely replacing her stomach."

"Replacing her...oh gosh...are you sure that there's no other known cure?" The doctor nods.

"And as it is, miss, I'm not even sure that that would work..."

"Well, tell me more about the stomach operation."

"Well, first of all there's a 15-85% chance of her living through the operation."

"Would 85% be the chance of her living?" Skippsy gives him a hopeful look. The doctor shakes his head.

"No, the 15% is that of her chance of living."

"Oh kipper..."

"But of course, it's all up to the patient." Skippsy nods while running a flipper through her feathers on her head. The doctor waddles into Rachel's room. Marissa and Trixy look at Skippsy not completely believing what they had heard.

"Marissa, could you fix her with bettah odds?" Trixy asks with hope glinting in her eyes. Marissa shakes her head sadly.

"N-no, I'm afraid I can't, Trixy." Marissa says. "But...but I'll try to think if I could possibly come up with an actual cure..."

"Yes, please try, Marissa." Skippsy says. This shocked Marissa and Trixy a little; Skippsy rarely ever requested something like this in a non-order format.

* * *

The doctor exits the room and Skippsy, Marissa, and Trixy enter it. "Oh there you girls are!" Rachel says smiling. "I was starting to get worried about you."

"Rachel, we should have been the least of your worries at the moment..." Marissa starts, but she receives an elbow to the side by Trixy, which also was surprising because that was normally what Skippsy would do; not Trixy.

"Oh? And why's that?"

"Well, you get an option to have surgery on your stomach to see if it's possible to get rid of the storage thing in your stomach." Skippsy says.

"My what in my what?!"

"Oh, shoot, I forgot that you lost all of your memory of yesterday."

"So you mean that I can regurgitate weird things?" Skippsy nods.

"As far as I've been told..." Rachel ponders this for a moment. Then she regurgitates her backpack and looks at it surprised.

"Okay...how did that get in me? " Skippsy shrugs. "Well, I don't know about you, girls, but I think this is pretty cool...why would I want to have this fixed?"

"Because of the possible side effects." Trixy says.

"What side effects?"

"Possible speech problems and eventual insanity."

"Oh...I'm sure that there's a way to get around all that. I'm sure Marissa could invent something." Radhel smiles.

"I suppose that this is what Harriet meant when she said that they switched up some of her brainwaves." Marissa whispers to Skippsy who nods in agreement.

"Well, as I said, Rachel, the operation is up to you." Skippsy says.

"Hmm, I believe my answer will be no. I mean, what was the possible chance of living through the operation? 20%?"

"15% actually." Marissa says.

"See? I think it would be better if I didn't go through with the operation." Skippsy nods.

"Alright, I'll go tell the doc." Skippsy says. She then leaves the room.

* * *

In a few hours all five penguins are standing outside the base happily on their way to the US. "So, Skippsy, how are we getting from here to the airport?" Alejandro asks.

"Um, good question...I guess we'll slide until we come to some cars, then we'll borrow a car and drive the rest of the way there." Skippsy replies happy to be out of the hospital.

"Okay...and where would these cars be?"

"Uh...there's one now! Okay, everyone, commence operation: Taxi!"

"But taxis are in New York not Brazil, Skippsy." says Trixy.

"That's where you are wrong, Trixy. There are taxis in Brazil, but we aren't using one of those, we're getting a jeep."

"Okay, how?"

"Simple, Rachel, draw an **X** in the road at 15 degrees West of North. And Trixy, go stand on that **X**."

"Wha-What?! But I'll get hit!"

"No you won't. You'll just have to pretend to have been hit." Trixy sighs.

"Alright."

"Okay, and the rest of us will hide here until they stop the car, then we will go hijack it. Everyone, understand?" There are nods all around. Good, alright. Trixy, get on the **X** on my mark...MARK!" Trixy scurries over to the **X** and stands there.

_OhBuckinghamohBuckinghamohBu ckinghamohBuckingham what did I evah say to deserve this?!_ The car screeches to a stop right in front of her and she falls back onto the ground and plays dead. People get out of the jeep and crowd around her. Meanwhile Skippsy, Marissa, Rachel, and Alejandro went through the steps of car-hijacking.

"Aww! The poor little penguin! Is it dead?" asks a random lady in the crowd around Trixy.

"I don't know, dear. But I will give it the kiss of life!" says a guy next to the lady. Trixy's eyes widen. The guy then leans down and outs his mouth to Trixy's beak. Suddenly a rope is around her waist and yanks her up onto the jeep. The penguins then drive off with the humans's car.

"Our car!" exclaims the lady.

"Ewwwww! Gross! Gross! Gross!" Trixy saws wiping at her beak and spitting over the side of the jeep. "Eeeeeeewwwwwwwwww!" Skippsy and the others laugh a little.

"So how was your first kiss, Trixy?" Marissa asks. Trixy gives her a look of pure disgust.

"Oh just zip it! It wasn't funny!" Skippsy pats her on the back.

"It was a nobel sacrifice, soldier." Skippsy says. Trixy shakes her head with a sigh.


	20. Forgotten Paperwork

**A.N.- okay here is the next chapter! But first, I have two things to say:**

**1) This chapter is dedicated to MadagascarGirl; Happy Brithday, MG!**

**2)Wow, so far I've gotten 50 reviews for this story! Which is a record breaker for me! XD thank you, everyone who have reviewed!**

**Okay, I'll be quiet now and let you guys read the chapter ^^ Enjoy!**

Chapter 20: Forgotten Paperwork

(Nobody's POV)

The penguins drive all the way to the penguin airport and from there fly to America. Alejandro was not fond of it; he had to keep his eyes closed for the majority of the flight, but that doesn't mean that he slept. Nope. He was too nervous to sleep.

"Hey, you survived!" says Rachel quietly to Alejandro once they had exited the plane. Alejandro gives her a stiff nod. "You know I was just kidding with you, right?" Rachel playfully punches him in the shoulder. Alejandro smiles.

"Sí, I know." Alejandro says putting a flipper over her shoulders.

"Hey! Hurry up you two before we just leave you here!" Skippsy calls. It is then that they realized that they were lagging behind. Skippsy shakes her head with a sigh; they were reminding her of when she dated Benny. _Man up, Skippsy. That was years ago, and it's nothing to linger on._

"Skippsy." Calls Marissa for the eleventh time.

"Huh? What?" Skippsy shakes herself from her thoughts.

"We're here."

"HOME!" Squeals Trixy as she pushes past the others and slides into the HQ. "Oh, how I've missed you, HQ!" She gives the television a hug. "And you, Telly, old chum!" The other four each raise a non-existent eyebrow, but don't say anything; they knew how Trixy felt. Skippsy immediately goes over to the answering machine and notices that there are two messages. She plays the first one:

**_"Hello, Skippsy. This is your frenemy, Harriet...though I bet you could tell that from my voice...well, anyway, welcome back home to your habitat. I may have left you a little surprise there. So, you may want to be on guard. Haha! Until next time, bye."_** Skippsy sighs; she'd look around later for Harriet's 'surprise.' She plays the second message:

_**"Good evening, Skipper Skippsy. This is General Bob. I'm sorry to call you back to the Brazilian base so quickly, but you forgot to turn in your file on the mission that you and your girls just completed..."**_

"Hey! I was there too, and I'm not a girl!" Alejandro interjects.

"Shh! I can't hear the message!" Skippsy shushes him and rewinds the message back.

**_"We need you to come back and personally turn it in. We will not accept it if you airmail it, unlike last time...General Bob, over and out."_** Skippsy just stares at the answering machine.

"Well, darn it." She turns back to her team and Alejandro. "Do you think that you will be fine without me for a day?" they all nod.

"Of course!" Marissa says.

"We'll be good!" Trixy says.

"Sí!" Rachel says. Skippsy sighs.

"Alright, I'm counting on you all to behave. Alejandro, that goes especially for you. Marissa will be in charge while I'm gone. Everyone understand?" They all nod. "Good, good. Well, I'll be back tomorrow night." Skippsy waddles over to their fishbowl hatch and climbs half-way up the rungs. "Oh! And Marissa and Rachel, try not to destroy the place while I'm gone...and, and keep a close eye on Trixy."

"Of course, Skippsy! Don't worry!" Marissa says. Skippsy nods and disappears through the hatch.

_*Brrrrriiiiinnnng!*_

Marissa sighs and answers her cell phone. "Yes, Skippsy?"

"Also, I need you to see if you can find Harriet's 'surprise' and deactivate it for me."

"Yes, ma'am. I'll get right to it." Marissa then hangs up the phone. The bomb was not hard to find. She just had to listen for the ticking noise; it was under Skippsy's pillow. Marissa deactivates it quickly and puts it in her lab to use later. Marissa glances over her inventions and grabs one named the _X-Rayer_. "Hey, Rachel, can you come sit on the table, please?"

"The table?" Rachel asks. Marissa nods and Rachel shrugs. "Okay." Rachel lays down on the table and Marissa brings her invention over. She scans in over Rachel's midsection.

"Great golly wally!" Marissa exclaims.

"Well, that's a new exclamation. What is it, Marissa?" Trixy asks.

"Rachel not only has an assortment of things in her gut...but also stairs! And an elevator!"

"Say what?!" Says Rachel sitting up to look at the x-ray screen herself. "Hmm, okay...why do I need both? I mean, an elevator makes sense I guess...since its faster than stairs."

"Maybe for in case of fire, the stairs are used?" Trixy suggests.

"When would there be a fire?"

"Uh, heart burn maybe?" Rachel pats her on the head.

"Maybe...What are you doing, Marissa?" Marissa had taken out her clipboard and was rapidly taking notes.

"Well, firstly I'm sketching out what it looks like...and now I'm taking notes...hmm." Marissa says.

"Well, could you hurry up a bit? You're kind of making me nervous."

"Sorry, but you can't rush science, Rachel."

"Well, I bet Skippsy would disagree." Alejandro chimes in. Marissa doesn't say anything.

"I'll be in my lab." Marissa says.

"Wait! If you're in your lab, how will you be able to be in charge?" Trixy asks.

"Hmm, good point. Okay, Rachel, you're in charge while I'm in my lab."

"Roger that!" Rachel says. Marissa nods and closes the lab door behind her.


	21. General Bob

**A.N.- Okay everyone, here is the next chapter! Enjoy! :)**

Chapter 21: General Bob

(Nobody's POV)

Rachel looks up at the clock; 2000 hours. She frowns. "Alejandro, if we're going out on that date tonight we should probably leave now...otherwise we won't have time and will have to wait until tomorrow." she says. Alejandro nods.

"Okay...but what about Trixy?" Alejandro replies.

"I'm sure that she wouldn't mind going to bed two hours early. Would you, Trixy?" Trixy looks up from the book she is reading.

"Um...I guess...could I not just stay-up until lights-out time and then go to bed?" Trixy replies.

"Will you remember to actually go to bed this time?" Trixy nods enthusiastically.

"Yes! You can count on it!"

"Alright, I'll trust you to do so. Alejandro and I will be back around 11 tonight, okay? Don't open the door for anyone and don't leave the zoo. And if you need anything, ask Marissa."

"Okay. Have fun on your date!" Trixy waves as Rachel and Alejandro leave on their date. She then goes back to reading her book. "Hmm, now where was I? Oh yes, the dread pirate Roberts had just revealed himself to princess Buttercup as her long lost love Westley..." **(A.N.–The book Trixy is reading is The Princess Bride by Willaim Goldman.)**

_***KABOOM!***_

Trixy looks up from her book at Marissa's lab. "Drat! I knew I should have added the orange to the green and not the other way around." Marissa shouts from inside.

**_*CRASH!*_**

Trixy tries to go back to reading her book, but with all of the explosions and noises coming from Marissa's lab, she could not. So she sits the novel down with a sigh.

_Well, Rachel said not to leave the zoo...but she didn't say anything about leaving the habitat! So, I guess she wouldn't mind if I went on a walk around the zoo..._ Trixy smiles and quietly leaves the habitat. Meanwhile Skippsy had just waddled into General Bob's office.

"So...I'm guessing that you wanted me here for more than missing paperwork, correct?" Skippsy asks. Bob nods.

"Ah yes, you're just as intuitive as ever I see." General Bob says.

"Stop the flattery and get to the point, Bob. I don't have time for this. My team's waiting for me back in New York."

"You left your team at your HQ? Alone?!"

"You understand my need for speed then." Bob nods.

"Yes." Skippsy makes a motion that could translate over to -Hurry up!- "Right, right, I need you to interrogate Juarez...actually Juarez's guard...since Juarez somehow escaped soon after he was locked-up." Skippsy face-flippers herself.

"You're telling me that you lost my prisoner and I'm just here to interrogate a guard! Talk about wasting my already stretched time."

"Skippsy...You know you were always the best of us at it..."

"Stop. Stop it right there."

"I'm sure Benjamin would —" Skippsy shoots him an icy glare and he stops talking, as he had now realized that he had just talked himself into no man's land.

"Don't talk about what Benny would or wouldn't want me to do. He's gone. Now, let me tell you something, Bob. I was almost going to say yes to the interrogation, but now I almost want to just walk out. So, is that seriously all that you want me to do? Interrogate the guard? Then I can get back to my girls?" General Bob shakes his head.

"No...we'd like for you to go catch Juarez too...we figured that you'd be able to get him faster if you went alone...like you used to." Skippsy sighs.

"Alright, fine. I'll do it...but only under one condition."

"What?"

"My girls and I get a full six week vacation, without a single call from you guys here or from any other base." Bob gives her an iffy look.

"You know I can't promise that, Skippsy." Skippsy crosses her flippers.

"Take it or leave it, that's my offer."

"Agh! Why must you always make things so difficult?!" Skippsy shrugs with a half-grin. "Alright, fine, I'll see what I can do about the vacation." Skippsy nods.

"Okay; where's the guard?" General Bob waddles out the door.

"He's this way, but let me warn you first. He's a tough one...and not very respectful either. We were already planning on letting him go, but now we're suspecting that he may be the reason Juarez is no longer behind bars." Skippsy nods.

"Hmm, alright. So what intel do you need me to get out of him?"

"How did Juarez escape,...and well, you know, the normal stuff." They waddle up to an interrogation room. "Well, here he is. Good luck." Skippsy waves him off.

"I won't need luck." Bob nods and opens the door for the room. Skippsy waddles in.

**A.N.- I shall apologize in advance for the next chapters. They may end up as 'return of the POVs' :/. I just thought I may warn you guys in advance, but I'll try my HARDEST to keep it all to the minimal POVs possible. **


	22. Oh Really?

**A.N.-Okay, here is chapter 22! Enjoy! :D**

Chapter 22: Oh Really?

(Nobody's POV)

_Hmm, I wondah where Rachel and Alejandro went for their date. _Trixy is skipping around the zoo happily. She had missed the little zoo while they had been away in South America.

_*snap*_

_I wonder what that was...I suppose I had bettah check it out._ Trixy tiptoes over to where the sound had appeared to have come from. She doesn't see anything but a bush. She frowns and glances around, then, once she had decided that it must have been only the wind or something small, she continues on.

"Hello, penguin." says a voice suddenly in the dark.

"Huh? Who's there?" Trixy calls back. A puffin steps out of the shadows.

"Hans." Trixy tilts her head. "As in Skippsy's ex-boyfriend, Hans."

"Oh, you...I don't think Skippsy would approve of me talking to you...so, uh, goodnight!" Trixy then starts to slowly back away.

"Goodnight indeed." Hans then tosses some small object at her feet. Smoke fills the air, disorienting Trixy and making her cough. When the smoke clears she finds herself tied up and Her beak taped.

"Erm!" Trixy exclaims through the tape.

"What? I didn't catch that." Hans smirked. "Now, you're coming with me, little penguin. Mwhahahaha!" Hans then lifts the squirming Trixy and quietly runs from the zoo. Meanwhile Skippsy silently waddles into the interrogation room and sits down at the table in front of the guard.

"Hello, I'm Skippsy and I'll be your interrogator for the day. What's your name?" Skippsy says with a fake smile.

"Leroy. Leroy McFlounder." says Leroy. Skippsy nods.

"Okay, Leroy, may I call you that?" Leroy nods. "Alright, well let's get down to business shan't we?"

"Before you even ask, missy, I ain't talkin'."

"Oh really?"

"Yes, really. I know they sent you here to butter my up for the harder interrogators. And I ain't tellin' them nothin' either." Skippsy raises a non-existent eyebrow.

"The harder interrogators?" Leroy nods.

"Yes, so don't even try getting information from me. I know about this kinda thing. And I ain't talkin'."

"I guess we'll just have to see about that won't we?" Skippsy gives him a little sly wink and a grin. "So, Leroy, you were guarding Juarez's cell, were you not, last night?"

"Yes, I was guardin' his cell, what of it?"

"I believe I'll be the one asking the questions here, sir."

"No. I think I will."

"Oh really?"

"Stop with all yer 'oh really's. They're confusin'."

"Oh really? Alright, fine. How about we skip the whole chitchat and answer routine and get down to the interrogation." Skippsy stands up and starts to waddle away from the table.

"Aww, sweetie, no, we were just gettin' to the fun part." He puts his flipper on her shoulder. Skippsy whips around and pins him about four inches above the floor against the wall.

"Did I give you permission to touch me? I don't think so. Now let me give you some advice, Leroy. Either you start singing like a canary about Juarez's escape and who you are really working for, or I will make you sing. And then you would be singing about more than that. There is _no_ harder interrogator here. Comprende?" Leroy nods. Skippsy releases him and he slides down the wall.

"Wow. She is good." General Bob says as he watches the interrogation proceed.

"You talked to her about Benjamin before this didn't you?" Commander Gray says waddling up behind him. Bob nods. "Well, then that's why she's being so hostile in this questioning; she's letting her temper out all on McFlounder there."

"You mean that this could have been me about five minutes ago?"

"Probably if you had continued to talk about Benjamin in front of her..." Bob and Grace watch as Skippsy and Leroy once again seat themselves at the table.

"Now, talk." Skippsy orders.

"About what?" Leroy replies quietly.

"I believe that you already know what. So spill the intel already. I don't have the time for this."

"Alright. Fine. I let Juarez out."

"Why?" Leroy shrugs. "Oh I see, you were bribed, weren't you?" Again Leroy shrugs thus confirming Skippsy's accusation. "How much did he bribe you? Thirty sardines? Forty?"

"No!...Twenty sardines and five mackerel." Skippsy nods.

"Do you know where he went after you let him out?" Leroy mutely shakes his head. Skippsy scrutinizes him for a moment before believing him. "Alright. I have no more questions for you." Skiippsy then gets up and leaves the interrogation room. She waddles over to Commander Gray and General Bob. "Did you hear the facts?"

"Yes, we did." Commander Gray says. Skippsy nods.

"So, do we have any idea of where Juarez may be now?" Grace nods.

"Follow me." Skippsy and Bob follow Grace to a white board. She shines a map projection onto the board. "We have heard from our sources that he is trying to leave the continent. I have had all South American countries put their boarders on lockdown, but I have a feeling that he'll weasel his way through and cross over the Panama Canal. And then once he's done that, he could easily go through Latin America, then Mexico, and then once he has entered the US he could hitch aboard a plane and go anywhere."

"So do we have a possible location for him at the time being?"

"Our last spotting of him was in Mitú, Colombia. I'd suggest starting from there and going towards Panama...or maybe start at Panama and go South East." Skippsy nods.

"Okay...but before I go, I suggest that once I get him we send him to Base Q."

"Base Q?! Why Base Q?" General Bob asks. Skippsy shrugs.

"It has decent holding cells with guards that he can't bribe. Plus, he'd be kept far away from my weapons specialist."

"You do know where Base Q is don't you?"

"If I didn't, would I have suggested it? It's in Lithuania, isn't it?" Commander Gray nods.

"Yes, and I think that's a great idea." Commander Gray says. Skippsy nods.

"Okay, I'll go after Juarez now." Skippsy briefly salutes to Grace and then waddles out of the room.


	23. Tape and Earmuffs

**A.N.- Okay, here is chapter 23. It's kind of short, but I hope you'll enjoy it! :) **

**And for those of you who have read _A Trixy Situation_, the next chapters may seem a bit like deja vu. **

Chapter 23: Tape and Earmuffs

(Nobody's POV)

Marissa waddles over to a cabinet full of beakers of chemicals. She frowns as she looks over the labels that she has no clue how to read. "Let's see...pink is...is...Fluorine isotope? Yes...I think...well, if it's not, I guess I'll just find out the hard way." Marissa picks up the beaker of pink liquid and randomly grabs a beaker of turquoise-colored liquid. "Let's hope this works." Marissa takes an eyedropper and fills it with some of the pink liquid and slowly drops a couple of small drops into the turquoise beaker.

_*Kabooom!*_

"Cough! Cough! Well, that obviously wasn't right. Oh well. I guess it's back to the drawing board..." She picks herself up from the floor and then sees just how much of a mess her lab is. "Hmm, maybe I should clean up some first." She then gets the broom that she keeps in the corner and starts to sweep up the pieces of broken glass beakers that litter the floor. While at the same moment Hans finishes tying Trixy to a chair in a cage.

"Stop struggling so much! You're making it difficult!" Hans says as he knots the rope. Trixy instead struggles even more and Hans glares angrily at her.

"Good. That was the whole point of struggling." Trixy replies glaring back at him just as angrily. Hans finishes and then takes a few steps back, surveying his handiwork. "May I ask a question?"

"What?"

"Why am I both tied to a chair AND locked in a cage?" Hans shrugs.

"The chair is an extra precaution. As are the tape and earmuffs."

"Tape and earmuffs?" Hans nods and grabs the aforementioned objects from off a table and walks back over to the cage. "Those aren't going to me, are they?"

"They are, miss penguin."

"Um, no, they're not."

"Uh, ja, they are."

"Nope. You may think they will, but they won't."

"We'll just have to see about that." Hans pulls a piece of duct tape off the roll and unlocks the cage. Trixy takes this moment to kick the rest of the tape away and to lean in her chair to make it fall over onto Hans. "Ow! What was that for?!"

"For kidnapping and tying me up!" Hans gets up and pushes Trixy's chair back upright and reclaims his roll of tape.

"I grow weary of your incessant chatter." He pulls off another piece of the duct tape and somehow manages to tape Trixy's beak shut without her biting his wing. "And now for the earmuffs." Trixy glares at him and moves her head around as he tries to put the earmuffs on. He finally succeeds. "Mwahahaha! I told you so. Ja, I did. Now, to go through with the next step of my plan. Good bye, penguin." Hans then leaves the room. Trixy tries to knock off or at least shift the earmuffs by rubbing her head against the chair back, but she can't get the earmuffs to budge. She exhales irritably and leans her head tiredly against the back of the chair. She soon falls asleep from exhaustion.


	24. Private!

**A.N.- Okay, this chapter is almost all of chapters 4-7 of _A Trixy Sitation_ combined, just fyi. Anyway, I hope you enjoy it! :)**

Chapter 24: Private!

(Nobody's POV)

Trixy is just waking up when Hans walks into the room carrying something black and white and limp. Trixy frowns the best she could with tape over her beak. _I wondah what that could be...Hans isn't the type to just outright murdah someone...is he? Oh bothah, if only I wasn't wearing these accursed earmuffs, then maybe I could hear what Hans is ovah there saying to himself. Maybe that object is someone who is unconscious?_ She thinks. Hans and his limp thing disappear right behind Trixy's chair. Trixy cranes her head to try to see around the back of the chair. She was able to just see that Hans holding some more rope. _Okay, so whatevah that is must still be alive since Hans is tying him or her up_. Hans steps away from the cage and relocks it. Trixy then watches him angrily as he walks out of the room. It isn't long until Trixy senses movement behind her and Hans walks back into the room. He sits down at a chair in front of a large video-phone screen. Trixy notices that Hans appears to be talking to someone, but she couldn't hear what Hans and whoever were saying. In a few minutes Hans walks over and takes the earmuffs and duct tape off of Trixy.

"Ouch! Ooh, Hans when I get free of this, you are so dead!" Trixy exclaims angrily as she struggles some more against the ropes. Hans walks back to the door.

"Whatever." Hans says waving her off as he walks out of the room.

"Tr-Trixy? I-is that you?" says a voice with a vividly familiar to Trixy British accent. Trixy blinks for a moment not completely believing what she had heard.

"*Gasp!* PRIVATE! What the Buckingham are you doing here?!"

"I could ask you the same thing! But something tells me that you're here for the same reason..." Private says.

"So you're skippah bait too, then?"

"Yes...wait, you have a skippah? Since when?"

"Since about three years ago, her name is Skippsy. And when did you get a skippah?"

"Um, about three years ago, too. His name is Skippah."

"So, that makes you Private Private T. Tux?"

"Private first class Private T. Tux."

"Ooh, getting a bit fancy there with the names aren't we, Priv?"

"Very funny, Trixy. So I guess you're Private Trixy P. Guen?"

"Private second class Trixy P. Guen."

"You haven't passed the first class test yet! I would have thought that you would have done that first thing, knowing you!"

"I haven't been given the chance yet."

"Oh."

"Yeah, so, do you have any escape plans?"

"Nope, do you?"

"Nope. Well, I guess that we're stuck here until help arrives. I'm guessing that help will be your team, yes?"

"Um, I guess...why wouldn't your team be coming, too?"

"Skippsy is off on a mission in South America and Marissa and Rachel probably haven't noticed that I'm missing yet."

"Oh...then, yeah, I guess it'll be Skippah, K'walski, and Rico that will rescue us." Trixy nods.

"That sounds like a plan to me."

Hans then walks back into the room with a smug smirk upon his beak. He walks over to the wall and flips a switch; suddenly the floor underneath the Trixy's and Private's cage retracts exposing a huge and deep pool of water. "Hello, penguins. Get ready to say your good-byes!" He says.

"What no laugh this time?" asked Trixy mockingly to Hans. Hans glares at Trixy. Trixy and Private glare back.

"Hans, what are you planning to do to us?" Private asks trying to stall a little for time.

"I'm going to drop this cage with the two of you in it into the pool below you," Hans gestures to the pool below the cage. "Then you two will drown and freeze to death."

"What do you mean, 'freeze to death.'" Trixy asked, she was just catching on to how Private was trying to stall.

"I'm glad you asked." Hans said. "This water is not normal, it's very special."

"How is it special, Hans?" Private asks.

"I mixed the water with liquid Nitrogen making it the coldest of cold! Mwahahahaha!"

"And there's the laugh." Trixy says. Hans glares at her. "How deep is the watah?"

"Thirty feet."

"How long is that in the metric system, Hans? I have trouble understanding the feet and inches system"

"Uh, give me a second." Hans then turns and leaves the room in search for a calculator.

"Nice one, Trixy! That will buy us a bit of time." Private says.

"Yeah, I wondah how much longah your Skippah will be, I don't think that we'll be able to stall Hans for much longah."

"I know, we'll just have to hope that they are hurrying." Hans then returns with a calculator in wing.

"I got it; it's 9.144 meters." Hans says.

"Oh. Okay, that's quite deep." Says Trixy with faked interest.

"Oh it's very, very deep! Mwahahahaha!"

"And there's the laugh again." Private says. Hans glares at him, and then he leaves the room. "Trixy, do you have any more stalling ideas? Because, I just ran out."

"Of course I do! Wasn't it I, who stalled back when we were the infamous Ms. Guen and Mr. Tux back in Dallas?" Trixy replies.

"I remembah, so what's the idea?"

"Okay, I think that when Hans returns that we should pretend to have goodbyes to say, but instead we say a bunch of random things that throw him off guard. And then one of us pretends to have a serious goodbye to say."

"Hmm, that sounds like a good plan...maybe Skippah and the othahs will hurry up so that we don't have to keep up the game for too long."

"Yes, hopefully." Hans then walks back into the room. Meanwhile, Rachel and Alejandro have just arrived back at the West Park Zoo penguin habitat.

"Creo que nuestra cita fue bastante bien, ¿no? **(I think that our date went fairly well, no?)**" Rachel says. Alejandro nods.

"Sí, creo que me fue muy bien! **(Yes, I think that it went very well!)**" He replies. Rachel grins as she hops down into the HQ. Then she frowns as she sees that it is after 0200 hours and ALL of the lights are still on. She waddles over to Trixy's bunk just to discover that Trixy is not there.

"Ay! Trixy isn't here! ¿Dónde podría ella ser?! **(Where could she be?!)** Oh, if Skippsy finds out about this Marissa and I are so toast!" Alejandro waddles over to her and gently puts his flipper on her shoulder.

"Tranquila **(Calm down)**, Rachel, I'm sure that she couldn't have gone too far. Maybe she went for a walk and fell asleep somewhere in the zoo. We'll find her." Rachel takes a deep breath and nods.

"Okay, yeah, I'm sure that that must have been what happened. But, let's go see if we can find her..." Alejandro nods.

"Of course." They then re-exit the habitat to start looking for Trixy.


	25. At Panama and the Escape

**A.N. — Okay, everyone. There will only be one or two more chapters after this one! Please enjoy! :D**

Chapter 25: At Panama and the Escape

(Nobody's POV)

Skippsy slides quickly under a low-hanging branches of a bush and leans against the trunk panting. She knew that she was getting close to him. She could feel it in her gut. Skippsy had slide non-stop from the Brazilian base all the way to Panama with only a total of four or five rest stops. She looks through the branches and sees a blur of black and white slide by. Skippsy grins. "Not on my watch, Juarez." she mumbles. She then slides after him and then skids to a stop. He fell right into her trap, literally.

"¡¿Lo que en el mundo?! **(What in the world?!)** When did that get there?" He exclaims as he tries to jump back out of the pit. Skippsy waddles over to the edge and smirks.

"You thought that you could just hurt one of my soldiers and then escape jail, didn't you? Well, sorry to burst your bubble, punk, but that is _not_ going to happen. When you mess with one of my girls, you mess with me. And you, Juarez, are going back to jail. But you're not going back to the Brazilian base, oh no, no, no. You, Juarez, have a specially reserved cell at Base Q. I hope you will hate your stay there." Skippsy hops down into the pit with a pair of silver flipper-cuffs. "Juarez, you are under arrest. You have the right to remain silent, anything you say can and will be used against you in the court of penguin law."

"Darn it!" Skippsy pushes him up against a wall of the pit and cuffs his flippers behind his back.

"I heard that hot-shot. If I were you, I would be quiet. There already is more than enough dirt on you to get you a life's sentence in the slammer." Skippsy then tosses him up out of the pit and climbs up herself afterward. "Now, you're coming with me." Skippsy roughly lifts him to his feet and shoves him forward. Juarez looks back at her with hate-filled eyes.

"I will get my revenge! On all of you! You can count on it."

"Yeah, yeah, yeah, save it for the judge, hot-shot." Skippsy shoves him forward again. Meanwhile, Hans had just reentered the room that houses Private's and Trixy's hanging cage.

"Are you ready to say your good-byes now?" Hans says.

"I suppose so." says Trixy.

"Yeah, me, too." says Private.

"Seriously? You have good-byes to make? Oh, very well, go ahead and get them over with." Hans says walking over to his wheeled chair and sitting down.

"Trixy, I have a confession to make."

"Really, me too." Trixy replies.

"Yeah, I find Hans's laugh really funny!"

"Hey! That was mine! You stole my confession, you confession thief!" Hans looks at the, strangely and scratches his head. He is very confused. He had expected that two kids that were about to die would be more...more serious.

"On a more serious note, Trixy, I do have something to tell you, if this is to be our last adventure together." Just then three penguins tumble in through the front door.

"Hans!" shouts a short, flat-headed penguin. Hans turns around and glares at the penguin.

"Skipper." Hans says. The penguin called Skipper then leaps at Hans but the puffin throws a fish at him and hits him square in the face. Skipper misses Hans and hits the wall. Skipper stands back up and shakes the shock of the impact off and goes after Hans once more.

"What were you going to say, Private?" asks Trixy as she watched the new unknown-to-her penguins fight Hans.

"Oh, nothing other than that I thought that our help had finally arrived." Hans looks over and sees that his two prisoners are grinning broadly. A tall penguin takes this time to try and sneak over to the puffin's control module.

"Hey! Leave that alone, you pesky penguin!" Hams exclaims as he runs over to the control module and pushes a green button. Trixy's and Private's cage starts to swiftly descend into the pool. Private and Trixy loose their happy looks and instead gain large, fear-filled eyes. Skipper and Rico then try to tackle Hans again and succeed. Their tackle, though, causes him to land on the self-destruct button. "You fools! You made me push the self-destruct!" He wriggles out from under the penguin-dog-pile and run to the door. "Good luck rescuing them in time Skipper! Mwahahahaha!" Hans then runs out of the house.

_*SPLASH!*_

"Skippah!" cries Private and Trixy in unison. The flat-headed penguin turns and looks at them.

"Hold on, Private! Kowalski, options!" Skipper says turning to the tall penguin.

"Uh.." Kowalski says whipping out his abacus and starts making a calculation, he then whips out his clipboard. "Push random buttons on the control module?"

"Works for me." Then Skipper, Kowalski, and a tallish penguin with a Mohawk and a scar get to work pushing random buttons. The cage does not slow but instead continues its rapid downward descent into the deep pool.

Trixy and Private take a deep breath right before their heads are dragged down below the Nitrogen infused water. They both struggle fiercely against the ropes holding them down to the chairs in the cage. But their struggling was doing more harm than good. It made them loose what little breath that they still had in their little lungs. Trixy is the first to black-out. Private looses consciousness seconds after her.

Within seconds Skipper turns around and notices the absence of the cage with the two privates. "Agh! Everyone to the water! Rico! Rope cutters and lock pick stat!" The three penguins jump into the pool.

"Oh, baby that water's cold!" shouts Kowalski as he came up from his initial dive. "Nitrogen infused water to be exact!"

"No time for your sciency non-sense right now, Kowalski. Dive! Dive!" They each take a deep breath and dive deep into the freezing pool. When they get close to the cage, they quicken their swimming speed. Rico, the Mohawked penguin, finds the lock and picks it. Once Rico had unlocked the cage, they swim in and cut away the ropes holding Private and Trixy to the chairs. Skipper then grabs Private and Rico picks up Trixy. Skipper motions for them to get hurry topside. Kowalski and Rico nod in reply. And then they all swim upwards really quickly; Rico was the first with Trixy to break the surface. Kowalski comes up gasping for air not too long after Rico. Skipper lastly surfaces with Private only moments after them. "_*Cough! Cough!*_, Kowalski, analysis!" Skipper drags Private over to beside Trixy.

"On which?" Kowalski asks.

"Both."

"They should both be fine, but I won't really know until they wake. She," Kowalski motions at Trixy with a flipper. "appears that she could wake up anytime now."

"And what about the private?"

"I have no clue." Just then Trixy starts to stir.

"_*Cough! Cough! Cough!*_ Brrrrrr!" She says shivering. Rico regurgitates a blanket and gives it to her. She takes it without a second look. "Thank you."

"Who are you?" Kowalski asks her curiously.

"Wha—oh, hello. I'm Trixy, Private Trixy, to be exact. Oh no, how's Private? He passed out after me; he should have woken up before me!" She then jumps up and runs over to the still sleeping Private. Trixy flips him over and starts to push up and down on his back.

"What are you—" Skipper starts to say but he stops because Private starts to wake up and begins to cough up a lot of water. Kowalski rushes over to check Private for any lasting damage. He does not find any.

"Oh, thank goodness, you're alright!" says Trixy, " I was so worried!" She then gives Private a tight hug.

"Agh! Trixy! Can't breathe!" says Private.

"Oh, sorry!" Trixy then releases him from the hug.

"Private, good to see you awake, soldier." Skipper walks over to Private and pats him on the back.

"Self-detuckt?" asks Rico.

"Agh! I completely forgot about the self-destruct!" squeals Kowalski as he runs over to the control module.

"**_Five Seconds until Self-Destruct!_**" says the control module. Trixy then gets up and runs over to the control module.

"Here move over a little, please!" she says to Kowalski as she pulls a remote-looking device from the backpack that she had forgotten that she had with her. She then pushes a bunch of buttons on the module and then a single button on the remote.

"_**Self-Destruct is Paused, Please Press Start to Continue.**_" Says the control module.

"H-how did you DO that!" says Kowalski, surprised.

"I'll tell you that later, let's get out of here!" She says looking over at Skipper while she waits for Skipper to give the signal for retreat.

"Right! Everyone, to the car!" Skipper orders. They all race out the door and jump into the car, Rico in the driver's seat, Skipper in the shot gun seat, Kowalski in the seat farthest to the left, Private in the middle of the back seat, and Trixy in the seat farthest to the right. Trixy pushes a button on her remote and Hans's secret lair explodes. The penguins drive away as fast as the little zoo coup could go, it wasn't until we were about a mile away that Rico allowed the little car to slow.


	26. I'm Home!

**A.N. —One more chapter left after this one! XD Enjoy! :)**

Chapter 26: I'm Home

(Nobody's POV)

Skippsy waddles into the Brazilian base have dragging Juarez behind her. They go down the glass elevator and go straight down to the holding cells. Skippsy shoves him into one and slams the door after him and locks it. "Don't worry, Juarez. You won't spend much more than a night in here. Then you'll find yourself under the harsh, strict flippers of the Base Q guards." Skippsy says grinning as she waddles back out. Juarez rolls his eyes and sits in a corner of the cell. Skippsy goes to General Bob's office. "Hey B—What are you doing?" She raises a non-existent eyebrow.

"Sk-Skippsy!" Bob fumbles the little pink Lunicorn in his flippers. He drops it back behind his desk with a nervous smile. "You're back already?!" Skippsy nods while trying not to laugh.

"Um, yeah, I'm back...and you still play with Lunicorns I see."

"Please don't tell Commander Gray."

"Why? Because you like her and it would mess up the slight masculine image you have?" Bob frowns. "I'm just kidding! Gosh."

"No, the reason is because I'd become the laughingstock of the whole base. And I don't have a thing for Grace. She's my boss!"

"Uh huh, sure. Well, anyway do you have my vacation permits yet?" Bob nods and hands Skippsy four sheets of paper. "Thank you. I suppose I'll leave you to your Lunicorns." Bob frowns again.

"Skippsy."Skippsy grins and leaves the room. Bob shakes his head with a sigh. He never would understand her. Meanwhile, a small zoo cope carrying five penguins was just slowing down. The penguins inside of it burst out laughing.

"What are we laughing about?" asks Private.

"Comic relief, maybe?" replies Trixy, which reminded everyone of their current situation.

"So, Trixy, is it? Why were you Hans's prisoner?" Skipper asks.

"He kidnapped me for revenge on my Skippah, who broke up with him a few years ago."

"Oh, and who's your Skipper?"

"Her name's Skippsy."

"Skippsy? As in Skippsy Penguin?"

"Um, yeah? What do you know her or something."

"You could say that, she is Skipper's twin sister." Says Kowalski.

"You have a sistah, Skippah?" Private exclaimes.

"Um, yeah and the fact that she dated Hans doesn't make me the least bit happy." The car drives along in silence for a few minutes before Kowalski asks the next question.

"Trixy, how exactly do you know Private? I mean you acted like you had met him before at the lair." Trixy was about to answer when Private answered for her.

"Trixy and I are old friends." he says. "She was friends with me even when I went around as Mr. Tux."

"Oh?" says Skipper suddenly interested again in the conversation.

"Yes, you see Private and I grew up together in the same zoo in London, then when Private's older brother Lieutenant sent him to Texas, I came too." Trixy says.

"You have an older brother?" asks Kowalski shocked at this new information.

"Two and an older sister actually, but that's a whole different conversation." Private replies.

"Okay, so for about how long have you two been friends?" asks Kowalski, who was still curious.

"Uh…." Trixy then stops to think, "About twelve years, does that sound right, Private?"

"Yeah, it does." Private says noding.

"When was the last time that you two had seen each other?" asks Skipper this time.

"Three years ago before a zoo transfer."

"Didn't you join this team three years ago, Private?"

"Yes."

"Oh, I see." Says Kowalski. "Trixy, I have one more question for you."

"Okay." she says.

"Why didn't your skipper come rescue you?"

"Skippsy is off on a secret mission in South America and she left Marissa, the lieutenant, in charge. Marissa was busy in her lab, so she left Rachel, our sergeant, in charge. Rachel, though, had a date and so she just left me there to take care of myself. I went for a walk and then was snagged by Hans."

"Well, that explains things." Says Skipper.

"What zoo are you stationed at?" Private asks.

"West Park, New York." She replies.

"Rico! Drive us over to West Park Zoo." Skipper says to Rico.

"Aye, aye, 'ipper!" Rico says as he changes lanes.

It isn't long until Rico pulls up outside of the penguin habitat at the West Park Zoo. Trixy then jumps out of the car.

"Good-bye, everyone, and thank you for saving me." She says as she walks towards the habitat. She waddles there really slowly. She knew that she had left her ribbon with Private and she was just waiting for him to realize this.

"Trixy!" Private calls. "Wait up!" Trixy stops walking once she had walked around the corner.

"Yes?" she asks.

"You forgot your bow!"

"Oh, thank you, Priv. Well, it was really nice seeing you again, we need to do this more often." They both laugh a little.

"Most certainly. I'm going to miss you, Trixy."

"And I, you, Private. But, hey, we'll see each other again…someday. Oh! I have an idea! Do you have a laptop?"

"Yes, why?"

"Can you get Skype?"

"Yes! That's brilliant, Trixy!"

"I know. Well, see you on the computer, Private. Good-bye." She gives him a quick hug and jumps into her habitat.

"Good-bye, Trixy." Private waves before returning to the little pink zoo cope. Meanwhile, Trixy practically skips into the HQ.

"I'm back!" She announces.

"_Eureka!_ No, wait. I was wrong." Says Marissa inside her lab not even noticing Trixy's return. Trixy shakes her head with a sigh. Rachel and Alejandro suddenly walk in via the door.

"Trixy?!" Rachel exclaims as she runs over to check her over. "Where the fish were you?!"

"I went for a walk and then I was kidnapped by Skippsy's ex-boyfriend Hans and then I was rescued by another team led by a skippah named Skippah." Trixy says.

"That sounds horrible!"

"No, it was great!" Trixy goes over to her framed picture of Private and hugs it closely as Rachel and Alejandro each looked at her as if she had grown a second head.

"Trixy, are you feeling okay? Did Hans do things to you?"

"WHAT?! No! No, of course not! I was kidnapped with my old pal Private! And then I got a ride here with him and his team. I'm just so happy that my bestest bestest friend evah is still alive and not dead!"

"Oooohhhh." say both Rachel and Alejandro now understanding. Trixy shakes her head. Rachel could imagine the strangest things that probably would have never crossed hers.

"What will we tell Skippsy?" Alejandro asks. Rachel shrugs.

"No sé. **(I don't know.)** Let's go ask Marissa. She would know what we need to do." They then go knock on Marissa's lab door.

_***CRASH!***_

Marissa opens the door. There is an empty glass beaker on her head. "What in the name of Einstein do you want?! I was in the middle of an experiment." Marissa says.

"So I see...well, anyway. This is our problem..." Rachel them tells Marissa what had happened. Marissa looks at Rachel with wide eyes.

"No. Do NOT tell Skippsy. She would kill all three of us if she knew." She thinks for a moment. "Hey, Trixy, come here for a second!" Trixy waddles over.

"Yes, Marissa?" Trixy asks.

"Don't tell Skippsy about Hans, or Skipper, or about this whole incident. Okay?"

"Hmm, that depends...what's in it for me?" She crosses her flippers. Marissa sighs; Trixy had become very accustomed to how secrets were kept in this team, which was both a good and a bad thing.

"Uh, how about two peanut butter Winkies." Trixy considers this for a moment and nods.

"Okay, my beak is sealed." She grins. Marissa sighs and gives her the Winkies. Trixy takes them and then goes to bed under Rachel's orders.


	27. Epilogue

**A.N.— okay, here is the last chapter for this story :) I will start my next stories A.S.A.P.! Enjoy!**

**Oh! And the math and science things I have somewhere below, they're completely random, so they are probably by no means correct. XD just FYI.**

Chapter 27: Epilogue

(Nobody's POV)

The next morning Skippsy tiredly hops down into her HQ. Her team had just woken up. Trixy is the first to notice her. "Good morning, Skippsy." she says. Skippsy nods with a tired smile.

"Good morning, everyone." Skippsy says. She passes her beloved coffee maker without even glancing at it which surprises everyone.

"Um, Skippsy. What's your first order of the day?" Marissa asks.

"For us to all go back to bed." Skippsy climbs into her bunk.

"But today is Monday. We have to play cute and cuddley for the visitors." Rachel says. Skippsy looks up at Rachel from her bunk and sighs.

"Alright, we can all go to bed after the children leave. Someone please bring me a cup of joe." Trixy carefully brings her a cup of coffee with a small sardine in it. Skippsy sits up and takes it thankfully. "Thank you, Trixy." Skippsy quietly drinks it and everyone else quietly stands around not knowing what they should be doing. "So...did anything interesting happen while I was away?" Marissa and Rachel exchange nervous glances and Trixy shakes her head.

"Um, no?" Trixy looks back at Rachel and Marissa and then nods. "Absolutely nothing at all happened." Trixy says. Skippsy raises a non-existent eyebrow.

"O—kay...Are you sure? You don't sound sure."

"I'm sure. As sure as sure can be."

"Alright, if you say so..." Skippsy looks around. "Where's Alejandro?"

"He was recalled to the Brazilian base." Rachel says sighing.

"Oh..."

"So when will we get our next assignment from the bases?" Marissa asks. Skippsy grins.

"Not for awhile. We have the next six weeks off as vacation."

"Really?! Where are we going for it?" Trixy asks. Skippsy shrugs.

"I dunno; I thought that I'd let you girls decide this time. But whatever you choose, you must ALL agree, unlike our last vacation..."

"Ugh, don't remind us." Rachel says. "That volcanic lava was just way too close for comfort."

"You're one to be talking! I had no tail feathahs for weeks aftahward!" Trixy exclaims. Rachel grins.

"Oh yeah, I had forgotten about that."

"Yeah, in hindsight choosing a vacation to an active volcano for research purposes probably was a somewhat idiotic idea..." Marissa murmurs.

"Hmm, and who decided on that trip I wondah..." Trixy says.

"Alright you three, cut it out. There will be no squabbling before I have finished my coffee. Comprende?" Skippsy says.

"Yes, ma'am." Marissa, Rachel, and Trixy say. Skippsy finishes her coffee and gets back out of her bunk.

"Okay, let's go entertain the visitors." Skippsy goes up the rungs and hops through their fishbowl hatch. The others follow her closely behind.

_**~3 days Later~**_

"Ah, Thursday. The nice, calm day of the week when we don't get many visitors." Skippsy mumbles after morning training. "Hmm, I believe that a snowcone-run would be the perfect thing to do today. What do you think, girls?"

"Yay! Snowcones!" Trixy says clapping her flippers excitedly.

"I think that's a brilliant idea, ma'am." Marissa says. Skippsy nods. She looks over to Rachel who is quietly sitting in a corner polishing a bomb. Skippsy sighs and waddles over to her weapons specialist.

"Rachel, I know what you're going through...well, part of what you're going through...Alejandro said that he'd be back as soon as he could, and you can count on him that he will." Rachel nods slowly. "We're going out for snowcones, do you want to go too?" Rachel quickly raises her head.

"SNOWCONES!? Is that seriously a question? Of course!" Rachel exclaims. Skippsy shakes her head with a smile; she had known that Rachel would react in that exact way. She stands up.

"Well, then stop moping with the explosives and come on." The four female penguins then hop through their fishbowl hatch and slide to the park. They hide in the bushes and wait for the snowcone cart man to turn away from his cart. When he does, Skippsy makes a motion and slides towards the cart. But, she doesn't reach it. Instead she collides head-on with a flat-headed, black and white figure.

"Oof!" The both exclaim and fall back rubbing their hard heads. They each look at the the other and narrow their eyes. "_You_... What the deuce are _you_ doing here?!" They glare at each other. "Stop saying what I say when I say it! No you stop!"

"Stop it! Both of you! The snowcone man is about to turn around!" Trixy shouts at them. They stop, turn, and look around them. The snowcone man WAS about to turn back around.

"Hoover dam! The kid's right! Fall back, men!" Skipper exclaims.

"Agreed! Girls, back to home bush!" Skippsy calls. The eight penguins dive back into the bushes as the snowcone man turns back around and rolls away with his cart.

"Blast." Say both Skippsy and Skipper once again at the same exact time. They look annoyedly at each other and sigh sighs of aggravation.

"*Ahem*" Kowalski clears his throat. Skippsy and Skipper both look at him.

"What?" They say.

"It would appear, sir and miss, that our best option is that we all go back to one of our HQs and discuss the matters of your argument where it is safer and less human-filled; since we are in a bush in the middle of Central Park."

"Though I hate to agree with him of all creatures, Kowalski's right. There's too much of a chance that your argument could compromise us if we stay here." Marissa says. Kowalski frowns at her and she slyly sticks her tongue out at him. Skipper and Skippsy look at each other and nod.

"Okay, let's all go back to our place." says Skipper. Skippsy nods. All eight commando penguins then go to the Central Park Zoo. Skipper and Skippsy go to the interrogation room and turn off all microphones so that it was sound proof for the most part. The other six penguins watch from the one-sided window-wall. The two skippers get into fighting positions.

"So...who do you think is going to win?" Rachel asks. Rico shrugs.

"I 'unno. Cou' be ei'er." Rico says. Rachel nods in agreement.

"Yeah, I think they're pretty equally matched." They watch as Skipper shouts something at Skippsy. Skippsy opens her beak shocked, but quickly recovers herself and angrily launches herself at Skipper and tackles him. They begin to tussle along the floor.

"You take that back!" Skippsy growls.

"Why should I?" Skipper replies as he barely doges a well-aimed punch at his face.

"Because if you don't, I'll make you." She ducks a kick from Skipper.

"I thought that Skippah doesn't fight girls." Says Private inside the viewing room. Trixy frowns.

"I don't know, Priv. Maybe he doesn't think of Skippsy as a girl...maybe he just thinks of her as Skippsy...like Lieutenant used to tell you to think of me when he had us fight. What was it he always would say?"

"'Don't worry, squirt. You won't hurt her; I'd be more worried of her hurting you, if I was you. So stop fretting about how she's a girl, and think of her as the enemy who has just stolen your ...your...stuffed horsey-thingy.' That's what he would say." Trixy nods with a small chuckle.

"Stuffed horsey-thingy. Your oldest brothah nevah could remembah that it was...is called a Lunicorn." Private nods and they look back at the skippers. Skippsy tosses a chair at Skipper. Skipper dives for cover behind the interrogation table.

"I'm still not going to take it back. You left the team for no good reason." Skipper says.

"I had a good reason. A great one! Benny was killed on a mission of yours. He was my life, and he died all because of you. So, I left and became my own skipper."

"That's not a good reason. Benjamin was just another soldier, he was expendable." They both are circling each other in their attack poses. Skipper lashes out at her with his left flipper. Skippsy counters it with her right.

"Expendable! He was no more expendable as you or I or Manfredi or Johnson! Is that all we were to you? Just a number on your team?"

"What?! No, of course not. Benjamin's death hurt me, too. You know how I don't like to lose soldiers."

"Hmm, yes. That's what your beak says, but is that what you really think?"

"Skippsy. Be reasonable."

"Me? Be reasonable? No. Not until you apologize!" Skippsy pins Skipper against the one-sided window-wall. Rachel, Rico, Marissa, Kowalski, Trixy, and Private jump back in surprise. Kowalski accidentally jumps back onto Marissa's foot. Marissa shoots him an icy glare.

"Please watch out where your jumping, brainiac." She murmurs.

"I'll try, Marissa." Kowalski says. Trixy and Private look at them confused.

"I wondah what's up with them." Trixy says. Private shrugs.

"I know what." Rachel says. "They went to school together and were at one point lab partners. But then one day one of their experiments went horribly wrong and exploded half the school. They each blamed the other for its failure and then they started to compete for the title of smartest penguin of the class. And then a general hatred evolved between the two and they've been on the other's last nerve ever since...or that's at least what I think Marissa once told me."

"Ooohhhh." Say Private and Trixy.

"That was not what happened. It was completely Marissa's fault. She forgot to carry the seven." Kowalski says.

"Uh no, you forgot to divide **72** times **A** times **D = F** times **R** squared times **S** to the third times **T** to the fourth power times **X** to the fifth by **3489**." Marissa says.

"What?! That wasn't even the equation!"

"Uh, yeah. It was."

"No, it was **82** times **A** squared times **D** to the third **= F** times **R** times **S** squared times **T** to the fourth times **X** to the fifth times **Z** to the sixteenth divided by **9843**." Trixy, Rachel, and Private look at them confused.

"No, you idiot. That wasn't it at all!"

"Oh yes it was!"

"Oh no it wasn't. Also, it was you who added to much potassium chloride to the mixture."

"Woman, you're insane! You kept adding too little! It required 3 mL and you kept putting 0.5 mL."

"No, you moron. It needed 0.5 mL of potassium chloride and 3 mL of cesium oxide."

"What! No wonder it exploded. There was no call for cesium oxide in the experiments. There should have been 0.6 mL of Francium oxide, though, which you, being the simpleton that you are, obviously forgot."

"Me? Forget a chemical? Nah, you've mixed us up, Kowalski." Rachel, Rico, Private, and Trixy were starting to grow annoyed and bored of Kowalski's and Marissa's argument.

"Hey, geeks. Why don't you stop arguing and watch our skippers fight. Two pairs of black eyes are enough for a day." Rachel says. Marissa and Kowalski each look at her in surprise of being called geeks, but they DO stop arguing. Because who in their right mind would argue with a weapons specialist over being quiet? No one. The six penguins return their attention to the skippers. Skippsy still had Skipper pinned to the wall. They are talking about something; then Skipper suddenly swipes his foot under Skippsy causing her to fall and allow himself to be freed.

"I apologize? What have I done that I need to apologize about?" Skipper says with his flippers on his hips. Skippsy picks herself up off the ground while glaring at here twin brother. She then sighs.

"You know, Skips. I don't even remember what we started this fight over in the first place." Skippsy says. "Do you?" Skipper thinks on this for a moment and shakes his head.

"Um, no. I can't remember." They then burst out laughing.

"This is just like our last fight; we argue and then fight it out, and then we don't even remember what we were arguing about in the first place."

"Very true. Hmm, maybe you and your team should go ahead back to your zoo. It should be almost closing time and you don't want to blow your covers." Skipper smiles and Skippsy smiles back.

"Truce?"

"Truce." They shake flippers and exit the interrogation room and enter the viewing room to find mass chaos. Marissa and Kowalski are about a sentence away from blows, Private and Trixy are nervously watching and trying to get them to stop, Rachel is shouting at Marissa in a mix of Spanish and English, and Rico is offering weapons to Marissa and Kowalski; he was in the mood for some more action. Maybe even some action with some explosions thrown in if he was lucky.

"What the deuce is going on here?!" the skipper twins exclaim. Immediately everyone stops what they were doing and stand in attention with nervous looks. Skipper and Skippsy just look st them and then at each other.

"I guess it's a good thing that my girls and I are leaving now...well, it was nice seeing you again, Skips. We will be seeing more of each other I suspect." Skippsy says. Skipper nods.

"We probably will. Good bye, Skippsy." Skipper says. Skippsy nods and orders her team out of the HQ and back to their own.

"Now, will someone please explain to me what happened back there?" Skippsy asks once they are back at their HQ. Marissa looks at her feet.

"No comment, ma'am." she says. Skippsy just looks at her for a few minutes and then sighs.

"Alright, I'll let you off easy for it this time, but next time, Marissa, I will want a full explanation, okay?"

"Yes, ma'am." Skippsy nods. She secretly hoped, though, that there wouldn't be a next time like that. But, there probably would be some time in the future. At least everything was back to normal by her standards. Now, the four girls could enjoy their vacation.


End file.
